Exercise MARSEC 2018

Between May 14th and 25th the Spanish Navy has scheduled a series of joint maritime security exercises with different national, regional and local departments with responsibilities in the maritime domain, as well as units from the Portuguese Navy, in 12 different scenarios throughout the Spanish coast. In addition, experts from 5 universities and 5 town halls are also participating.

This exercise is intended to test coordination capabilities of the Spanish Navy with other State Departments and Non-Governmental Organizations in tasks of maritime security like planning and conduction of protection operations in area of national interest.

The central goal is also to try out the collaboration and coordination of the Maritime Action Force with the different departments involved in maritime issues. MARSEC’s main peculiarity relies on the involvement of such a large number of institutions and departments with a single objective: to safeguard, in the widest sense of the word, the common interests in the different maritime scenarios. Management of a given situation is conducted by the appropriate military or civilian service in question.

Other tasks include coordination in the fight against drug trafficking, illegal immigrations, medical control of immigrants, cooperation with the Spanish Army in the control of maritime areas of national interest, shipping control, and search and rescue operations at sea.