Colsbleus.fr: ECA Group A9-M AUV and Demining divers deployed in favor of collaboration in the Adria

Wednesday, July 26 2017

ECA Group A9-M will be deployed as part of a mission in favor of collaboration between the adriatic region demining divers .

Published on Colsbleus.fr, July 2017.

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Photo Courtesy by © Marine nationale

Since mid-June, the Clearance divers' mothership Pluton has been deployed in the Mediterranean with a detachment of 10 demining divers from the Mediterranean demining group (GPD).

The first part of the mission was devoted to cooperation with the countries bordering the Adriatic.

Diving was the first item to be honored, with the Slovenian demining divers. Accustomed to inter-allied, and particularly seasoned, exercises, Slovenian divers organized two days of discussions on beach demining procedures in front of Koper (Slovenia).

Co-operation continued with the Croatian navy in the form of a joint Pluton-Hrvatska Kostajnica patrol (Mirna type patrol boat) and the embarkation of a Croatian officer.

For third stage of the tour of the Adriatic, the Pluto then stopped in Bar (Montenegro). After several exchanges and demonstrations with demining divers, a commemorative dive was carried out on the Dagger destroyer, sunk by a drifting mine on February 24, 1915, causing 38 deaths among the crew. A few months after the Lyre mine hunter, a new ceremony was held in front of the commemorative plaque (placed at the entrance to the port of Bar) in the presence of the French Ambassador to Montenegro.

The last stage of this journey led Pluto to Albania. The Albanian navy, with its rapidly expanding mine diving and warfare component, has guided co-operation in wreck diving in Vlora harbor, where many historic munitions are still present.