Naval exercise "GroupEx - 22" takes place, Peleshi: We will increase the capacities; we are ready to host “Defender 2023"

Published: Friday, 27 May 2022 15:36

For two consecutive days, members of the Naval Force of the Albanian Armed Forces conducted on the country's coast the exercise "GroupEx-22". Defense Minister Niko Peleshi, being present at the beginning of this exercise, considered it as very important especially at this moment of the increase of standards of the AAF.

During his speech, Minister Peleshi spoke about an ambitious plan that the Ministry of Defense and the government have for Cyber Security: "For the Naval Force we also have ambitions and plans to increase our fleet in the medium term, and to increase our maintenance capacity, as we talked with the commander. We are in the process of identifying the best ways to a better response to all maintenance needs, but also, as I said, we have plans for the construction, purchase of other vessels as displayed in the capacity objectives." - said Defense Minister.

Mr. Peleshi said that large investments are foreseen in the field of infrastructure and these are being discussed and planned with the government program as part of major projects for Albania.

Defense Minister noted the experience that the Albanian Armed Forces gained exactly one year ago from the largest exercise "Defender 2021".
"It is worth recalling that a year ago 'Defender-21' exercise took place in the entire territory of Albania, an important component of it has also been at sea and I believe we have learned lessons, we have increased interoperability to a degree we have never been able to, before. So we are now even more ready to become a host country, not only on land, but also in the air, and at sea for next year, 'Defender-23' and beyond", - stressed Minister Peleshi.

The Commander of the Naval Force, Rear Admiral Adnand Agastra explained the goals of this exercise, which also deal with concrete services to the community. "After this exercise, the ships will be distributed throughout the Albanian coast; from Shëngjin to Saranda, in all open ports, but also in the Bases of the Naval Force in order to respond to the seasonal situations due to the increase in the tourists’ flux, or the illegal use of the sea.The ships will be in the region in time to respond to all situations", - said Rear Admiral Agastra.

The purpose of this exercise was to evaluate and certify groups of patrol vessels as enforcement units, to test the organizational and command skills of group commanders, to plan the Naval Fleet Staff as well as to carry out firing with armament of ships.

The GroupEx-22 exercise and coastal shooting were attended by 11 Navy ships, 3 Archangel class ships and the Bording Group. The drill and the coastal shootings were conducted in accordance with the training documents as well as NATO’s ones.