On July 1, 2024, Rear Admiral Yannick Bossu handed over command of the Standing NATO Maritime Group in the Mediterranean (Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 – SNMG2) to Rear Admiral Matthew D. Coates of the Royal Canadian Navy during a ceremony chaired by Vice-Admiral Didier Maleterre, Deputy Commander of NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) aboard the command and supply vessel (BCR) Somme in Toulon.
This ceremony marked the completion of a nearly three-month deployment in the central and eastern Mediterranean of the first French command of this permanent NATO naval force. The BCR Somme, the flagship of the group, provided valuable logistical support through numerous resupplies at sea of allied units, notably American, and contributed to the surveillance of the activities of strategic competitors in the Mediterranean.
Augmented for several weeks by the Greek frigates Themistocles and Turkish Yavuz, the group participated in the multi-domain enhanced vigilance activity NEPTUNE STRIKE 24-1 and in a NATO anti-aircraft defense exercise with the Spanish air expeditionary group. SNMG2 also operated with Italian units engaged in MEDITERRANEO SICURO and the Cavour carrier strike group, destroyers of the United States 6th Fleet, the American aircraft carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower and Spanish, French and Greek units under national operational control.
SNMG2, led by a combined staff of British, Bulgarian, French, Greek, Italian, Romanian and Turkish officers and sailors, demonstrated solidarity and enhanced the interoperability of Allied navies. It has contributed, through its dissuasive and non-escalatory posture, to the stability of the southeastern flank of the Alliance. Now under Canadian command, the group will return to sea soon. It integrates a French multi-mission frigate (FREMM).
SNMG2 is a permanent maritime group which operates in the Mediterranean under the command of the NATO maritime component (Allied Maritime Command, MARCOM). It actively contributes to the Alliance’s maritime presence in the Mediterranean.
France has demonstrated its constant involvement within NATO by actively contributing to the Alliance’s maritime shield and by participating directly in strengthening its defensive and dissuasive posture in a context of tougher fighting at sea.
National Navy photos.
