Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- King Felipe witnessed this Thursday a shooting exercise carried out by the Navy in waters to the southwest of El Hierro with missiles and bombs against a ship already decommissioned, in which the aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I, two frigates, Harrier planes and Seahawk helicopters.
As reported by the Ministry of Defense in a statement, the “Sinkex-23” exercise includes launching of Harpoon, Penguin and Maverick missiles and JDAM and MK-82 bombs from Navy units against surface targets, for tactical training in scenarios realistic.
As a novelty, the Navy highlights, each of the launch events has an associated tactical scenario.
The ship Juan Carlos I, the Méndez Núñez and Canarias frigates, AV-8B (vertically takeoff Harrier fighters) from the 9th Squadron and SH-60F (Sikorsky Seahawk) helicopters from the 10th Squadron are participating in these maneuvers.
In addition, the maritime action vessels Relámpago and Rayo, the high-altitude patrol vessel Centinela, the auxiliary vessel Mar Caribe, a medium-speed Cessna Citation aircraft from the 4th Squadron and a D-4 maritime surveillance aircraft from the Air Force are collaborating.
The Navy assures that in these firing practices “the MARPOL convention is being taken into account in terms of pollution and measures are being taken to respect the biodiversity of the area aimed at reducing the environmental impact of sonar transmissions and other acoustic emitters. ”.
A 75 meter ship as a target
The main target has been the already decommissioned transport ship Martín Posadillo (A-04), a 2,300-ton, 75-meter-long ship that has been towed to the Canary Islands from Cartagena.
Two remote-controlled Alfa Indias training boats, 90-tonne barges that are almost 22 meters long, have also been used as surface targets.
The two training boats (former Midshipman Rull and Midshipman Godínez) were transferred to Rota from Ferrol aboard the ship Castilla and from Rota to the Canary Islands by the Juan Carlos I.
Spayk remote-controlled surface targets have also been used to launch Maverick missiles against them, and an experimental geostationary surface target, developed as a result of a collaboration between the Royal Navy Observatory and the University of Cádiz.
Finally, an inflatable target called “Killer Tomato” has been launched into the sea, against which they will test free-fall bombs.
The Navy plans to finish this exercise this Friday afternoon. His units will verify that the target ships have actually been sunk; if it were not so, explosives placed in her hull would be detonated so that they do not represent a danger to navigation. EFE