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Royal Navy helps African navies enhance security skills during Exercise Grand African Nemo
12 November 2024
Royal Marines and RFA Lyme Bay played the bad guys in one of West Africa’s biggest naval exercises.
The UK’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship turned into a smuggler, her crew ‘replaced’ by Royal Marines who were determined to make things as difficult for their African counterparts boarding and then searching the 16,000-tonne support vessel.
Enhancing maritime security in waters which have suffered from piracy and other criminal activity in recent decades was a key strand of Exercise Grand African Nemo.
It’s a long-running exercise staged in the Gulf of Guinea each autumn by France and West/Central African nations signed up to the Yaoundé Maritime Security Architecture with the emphasis on curbing criminal activity and ensuring shipping safely passes through waters from Senegal to Angola – a coastline of around 6,000 kilometres (nearly 4,000 miles) – and how partners and allies of the African navies can assist or bolster that effort.
As well as RFA Lyme Bay, French assault ship FS Dixmude, Italian Corvette ITS Borsini, and patrol ships from Spain (SPS Bam Meteoro), Portugal (NRP Viana do Castelo), Morocco (RMN Bir Anzarane) and Mauritania (MN Timbedra) joined a host of Nigerian patrol vessels.
Before the dynamic strand of the exercise at sea, Lyme Bay spent three days in Lagos, Nigeria where there was a multitude of defence engagement activities coordinated with the British High Commissions (Abuja and Lagos).
The dynamic phase in Lagos opened with the men of 42 Commando and their Nigerian Navy counterparts of the Nigerian SBS honing close quarters battle techniques aboard Lyme Bay to search and secure a potentially hostile vessel… through to zipping around the waterways of Lagos with the marines of 47 Commando (Raiding Team) at the helm of Commando Raiding Craft, developing core amphibious and surface assault skills.
At sea, that was taken up a few notches as Nigerian Navy patrol vessels, NNS Aba and NNS Chalawa, closed two ‘suspect merchant vessels’ – one played by Lyme Bay – whilst Augusta 109 helicopters of the Nigerian Navy conducted patrol and shadow duties of the area. Boarding operations were then carried out by the Nigerian Navy Special Boat Squadron aboard their fast-raiding craft to stop and ‘assault’ the suspect vessel.
Working together to share experiences, understand our common ground, hone our skillsets and fine-tune our standard operating procedures, we have built professional relationships and proven our ability to work side-by-side in combined assault teams whilst building close friendships through camaraderie and an understanding of having the same mission goals, effects and outcomes.
Once onboard Lyme Bay, the Nigerian SBS conducted a search for 'exercise narcotics’ then headed up several flights of stairs to Lyme Bay’s bridge where they found crew being particularly unhelpful, refusing to co-operate/answer questions and carried out a non-compliant seizure of the ships bridge along with the detention of a number of 'exercise' merchant crew members played by Royal Marines… while those not acting offered guidance and feedback to the Nigerians.
Able to run through an extensive list of aspects of board-and-search operations - Close Quarters Battles (CQB), detainee handling, method of entry, Commando Raiding Craft/boat handling drills and combat medical procedures.
“The training had rubbed off on both African and UK personnel”, said Lieutenant Sam Alberici RM, Officer Commanding 42 Commando Royal Marines Boarding Team 8.
“We have achieved some really valuable training opportunities with the Special Boat Squadrons of both the Ghana Armed Forces and Nigerian Navy focusing on maritime security and interdiction skills.
“Working together to share experiences, understand our common ground, hone our skillsets and fine-tune our standard operating procedures, we have built professional relationships and proven our ability to work side-by-side in combined assault teams whilst building close friendships through camaraderie and an understanding of having the same mission goals, effects and outcomes.”
Commanding Officer Captain Chris Ovens RFA said participation in Grand African Nemo had been one of highlights of the ship’s 14-month-long deployment.
“The opportunity for my ship’s company and embarked forces to visit the region presented an exciting prospect for them to showcase the breadth of capability of a Bay-class ship,” he added.
“The ability to train and exercise alongside our overseas counterparts, to hone skills, improve capability and demonstrate our interoperability is extremely valuable.”