The BAM ‘Meteoro’ carries out a passex exercise with the French Navy's dock landing ship ‘Dixmude’

• The navy ship has been carrying out several activities as part of its deployment in the Gulf of Guinea.

The offshore patrol vessel (BAM) ‘Meteoro’ has carried out a passex exercise alongside the dock landing ship (PHA) of the French Navy ‘Dixmude’ L9015 in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, as part of its deployment of the Coordinated Maritime Presences in the Gulf of Guinea (CMP-GoG).

The exercise took place in the waters of Ghana's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The French ship is conducting the fifth annual rotation of its national deployment ‘Corymbe’. The objective of this passex exercise was to strengthen ties with members of the National Navy, and to train in maritime and flight exercises for the crews of both ships.

The exercise began with an exchange of crews, receiving 6 members of the French crew on board the ‘Meteoro’ and 6 members of the ‘Meteoro’ on board the ‘Dixmude’. This was followed by an approach exercise to train the watchkeeping officers on the bridge and the deck personnel in the manoeuvre of bunkering at sea, ending with the bunkering of very light weights. In addition, on this first day, the Airfox drone was flown to obtain aerial images.

During the second day, numerous take-offs of a ‘Dixmude’ helicopter were carried out on the flight deck of the ‘Meteoro’, for training of the ‘Meteoro’ flight section in the procedures for setting chocks and lashings, and finally a medical evacuation exercise (MEDEVAC) was carried out.

The ‘Dixmude’ is a dock landing ship of the ‘Mistral’ class. Its transport capacity also includes room for up to 16 helicopters and 60 vehicles. The ‘Corymbe’ deployment, in which the ‘Dixmude’ participates, is an ongoing French Navy operation in the Gulf of Guinea, designed to reinforce maritime security and regional stability in West Africa. This deployment began in 1990 and consists of the almost permanent presence of a French ship in this strategic zone, where it carries out several cooperation, surveillance and support activities for the countries of the region in their fight against maritime threats.