Frigate Hamburg in troubled waters

At the beginning of August, the frigate HAMBURG left for the Mediterranean for almost five months. The crew is facing a tricky deployment, which will most likely not involve any shore leave due to the coronavirus.

The German Navy had previously participated in Operation Irini with a P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and carried out sixteen missions within this framework.

As a result of the Berlin Libya Conference in January 2020, the EU found a way to carry out a mission in the central Mediterranean at the end of March. The aim is to monitor and enforce the UN-backed arms embargo on Libya. Political agreement on the approach - the operation is seen by some as a lever against Turkish efforts to gain a foothold in Libya - proved difficult. In the end, a surveillance mission with ships, aeroplanes and satellites was agreed. In order to be able to react flexibly to the arrival of migrants, the commander of Eunavfor Med Irini can decide to position the units away from the transport routes between Libya and Italy. Overall, the operational area has been shifted further eastwards - to the eastern part of the central Mediterranean. The operation is also intended to help disrupt the business model of human trafficking networks. Irini is also intended to prevent the illegal export of oil from Libya. From the legacy of the Eunavfor Med Operation Sophia, the training of the Libyan coastguard and navy became part of the catalogue of tasks for Irini. However, according to recent information, this has met with little favour on the Libyan side.

In addition to the political agreement, the 23 EU member states involved found it difficult to deploy troops. For a long time, Irini relied on German, French, Luxembourgish and Polish air surveillance. France and Greece temporarily provided maritime units from mid-May. On 17 July, the Italian SAN GIORGIO, a landing ship, took over as flagship. Italy intends to temporarily deploy Predator drones, a submarine, a maritime reconnaissance aircraft and airborne early warning systems.

With the HAMBURG a German Navy ship is part of Irini for the first time. According to Brussels, the operation has thus reached full operational capability after almost five months. Originally, the Frigate of the SACHSEN class for a cruise to Southeast Asia and Australia and participation in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium. Then Corona came along and cancelled these travel plans; the symposium of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean was postponed until November.

Author: Hans Uwe Mergener