From Sunday May 19 to Wednesday May 22, French Navy La Fayette-class ship ‘Aconit’, will be making a port call.
This stopover comes at the start of a several month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea, and is primarily intended to consolidate ties with Armed Forces of Malta through opportunity training.
On this occasion, Aconit will embark two Maltese navy personnel during the transit from Toulon to Valletta so as to share experiences at sea.
During the training opportunities, a helicopter from the AFM airwing will perform approaches and landing on the French ship in order to practice and enhance the interoperability between the French and Maltese assets.
France and Malta are determined to work together to promote dialogue between countries in the Mediterranean region.
Regular deployments of French vessels in the Mediterranean Sea meet several objectives:
- Maintain France’s autonomous assessment capability in the region, shared with EU and NATO partners;
- Maintain cooperation with European allies and partners to develop interoperability in the interests of regional stability.
Commissioned in active duty in 1999, Aconit is a 125 meter long ship and 15 meters wide. She is characterized by her great ability to fulfil various missions:
- Anti-piracy and anti-narcotics operations;
- Maritime traffic protection;
- Special operations;
- Humanitarian support and non-combatant evacuation operations.
Commander (Navy) Hervé Nielly commands the ship.
You can visit a review about Aconit while on another port call in Valletta by Horizon in 2022 here.
