Pavlopoulos says that numerous government labs, academic institutions and commercial activities come to Souda Bay for test and evaluation of new equipment and concepts.
The NMIOTC training is effective and efficient.
The training is not just for NATO nations. Officers from Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles and Tanzania recently completed Advanced Maritime Law Enforcement/ Training of Trainers course, offered under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCoC).
“The trainees of the 13th Session of the IMO/DCoC initiative, along with NMIOTC instructors, delivered training at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this year. So we are training the trainers coming from the Djibouti Code of Conduct States, to be able to teach criminal investigation at sea to their compatriots,” says Pavlopoulos.
SOF personnel can also train in disrupting different configurations of pirate or terrorist camps using the two small islands in the bay used exclusively for that purpose.
Chief Master-at-Arms Aaron Bienkowski (center), an instructor from the NCIS Security Training Assistance Assessment Team, shows members of the Moroccan navy takedown tactics during maritime interdiction operation (MIO) training as part of Phoenix Express 2012 at the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operations Training Center (NMIOTC) in Souda Bay, Crete, May 10, 2012. Phoenix Express, a multinational maritime exercise between Southern European, North African, and U.S. Naval forces, is designed to improve cooperation among participating nations and help increase safety and security in the Mediterranean Sea. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Caitlin Conroy
“Every one of our ships has enjoyed the realistic VBSS training they received at NMIOTC,” says Capt. Jim Aiken, Commander of Destroyer Squadron 60. “It’s an impressive facility. Law enforcement is a complex operation, and it’s a great way to leverage our NATO partners to get the training we need for our ships when they are far from CONUS [Continental United States].”
According to Cmdr. Chuck Hampton, Commanding Officer of USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), the NMIOTC training is effective and efficient.
“We sent a team through there on our last patrol. Anytime we can leverage a facility like that in theater without sending folks back to the states is a win.”
A Legacy of Boarding
For many centuries boarding was the main – and often the only – method of naval warfare. When Thucydides wrote his History of the Peloponnesian War in 402 B.C., he described the boarding techniques, saying they were “the ancient way of fighting,” in contrast with the most recent ramming techniques which were emerging as novel tactical choice.
Throughout the centuries, warships were designed to fight at close quarters, and were built to come alongside and capture an enemy, or a prize.