LHD ship Juan Carlos I set sail from Rota Naval Base on June 6th and arrived at Pontevedra Estuary to embark nearly one hundred Naval Academy students, future Spanish Navy officers; more specifically, 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students as well as candidates to the Supply Corps.
They are all students of the new Academic Plan recently implemented in the Naval Academy whereby the midshipmen will become not only Lieutenants (Junior Grade), but mechanical engineers of the Defense University Center.
During the training cruise the students will continue their formation participating in exercises and collaborating in maneuvers, like Exercise MAR-31 where F-100 frigates from the 31st Escort Squadron are scheduled to participate. They will also participate in the amphibious training exercise MARFIBEX to be held from the 17th to the 21st of June, and the MAR-32 Exercise with units from the 41st Escort Squadron (24-26 June).
In this cruise of barely a month, the Juan Carlos I’s capabilities will be made available to improve the students’ curriculum. They will also have the opportunity to visit the cities of Rota, Malaga, Melilla and Lisbon.
Once the training program comes to an end, the Juan Carlos I will disembark the students in Lisbon on July 9th and will return to her home port in Rota Naval Base.
[mappress] Press Release, June 18, 2013; Image: Spanish Navy