German corvette, minehunter wrap up UNIFIL, NATO deployments

German Navy corvette FGS Magdeburg and minehunter FGS Bad Bevensen will be returning to their respective homeports on Friday, after completing separate international deployments.

Corvette Magdeburg is returning to her homeport in Warnemünde after 13 months of operations as part of the Maritime Task Force of UNIFIL.

Departing her base in May 2017, Magdeburg covered 20.100 nautical miles and staged several crew changes in order to be able to remain deployed for over a year.

Taking her place as the German contribution to UNIFIL is sister ship FGS Braunschweig which departed Warnemünde for the coast of Lebanon on May 14.

Commenting on the corvette’s return home, Frigate Captain Rüdiger Fitz said the deployment had been an eventful one, adding that the crew made stops in Albania and Spain on their return home.

Bad Bevensen return

The deployment of FGS Bad Bevensen was considerably shorter than that of the Magdeburg but the minehunter still put in over four months of operations with NATO’s Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1).

The ship spent most of the deployment in the Baltic and North Sea working with units from the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

During mine clearance training and operations, the crew deployed their Pinguin B3 mine hunting ROV 110 times, finding seven mines and one torpedo in the process.

In addition to drills with the SNMCMG1, the minehunter also joined the US-led Baltic Sea drill BALTOPS before heading home.

FGS Bad Bevensen will be welcomed to its Kiel homeport on Friday.