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The alarm sounds on the Spanish frigate Alvaro de Bazan currently sailing as NATO's flagship
in the Gulf of Aden. The crew are getting ready for an air-defence
drill. Four French Mirage fighter jets are about
to launch a simulated attack on the ship as part of the training. Spanish Admiral Eugenio
Dias del Rio, NATO's fleet commander, wants to test the ship's readiness to fend off high-intensity
threats like this. "They are going to come very low. We will
have around 50 to 60 seconds to react, but this ship is prepared for that."
The simulated attack is launched from a French air base in Djibouti. Moments after the jets
take-off 50 miles away, the ship's air defence system locks onto them and the radar operators
declare them hostile. The ship can then fire dozens of missiles capable of bringing down
several aircraft simultaneously before they can even attack.
As the flagship, the Alvaro de Bazan is a headquarters at sea for the Spanish Admiral
currently commanding NATO's counter-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean.
The Admiral has four Allied ships under his command. Their mission is to help keep one
of the world's most important commercial shipping routes safe.
But this fleet is also part of what's known as the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 -- one
of the Alliance's immediate-reaction forces at sea. As such, the Admiral must ensure the
ships regularly train and maintain the full range of conventional combat capabilities.
"That immediate-reaction force has to be ready to operate anywhere in the world in 48 hours.
So we need to keep our training levels to the top and this is something we do very often."
The NATO fleet together with ships from the EU's counter-piracy mission and other international
navies have helped reduce the number of piracy attacks from 147 in 2011 to just 5 in 2013.
The ship's commander says the success is also due to the increased use of private security
guards and the adherence to NATO's best practice guidelines for commercial ships.
"The number of attacks has decreased. However, they have not disappeared. The last one we
had was a couple of weeks ago. The pirates were detained by the military forces in the
area. The pirates know that we are here and it is more difficult for them but they still
try. If we left the area, the piracy incidents will rise again the day after."
The mandate for NATO's Operation Ocean Shield runs out at the end of the year.
The Admiral has two priorities: to keep up the deterrence against pirates and ensure
NATO Navies remain ready for any contingency. I'm Mike Muehlberger reporting from the Gulf
of Aden for the NATOChannel.