Chief of Naval Staff: 'Four ships planned to be sent to Hormuz'

At the audition Berutti Bergotto gave some details: 'We have eight fibreglass minesweepers that are from the 1990s, but over the years they have always been modernised to the state of the art. So now we have means that are technologically advanced, using remotely piloted and autonomous means for the search and then for the charge that allows us to defuse and clear the mine. But the intervention of minesweepers, but not only Italian ones, also those of all other nations, in a mined area must be done once the hostilities are over'.

"It is obvious that we have always been ready," said the Chief of Staff during the House hearing. The Navy maintains a high state of readiness, we always have certain ships that are ready to go in accordance with the instructions we receive from the government, and I feel I can say that we are ready and we are prepared for this work.

Berutti Bergotto emphasised one aspect: 'We,' he said, 'have a high demining capacity, we are a reference nation in this field because we have always carried out demining. Just think that every year we clear an average of 14,000 explosive ordinances that are found either at sea or on our beaches. They are all remnants of war, of course. And this has allowed us to maintain a high level of preparation, a high level of training for our personnel'.

The Navy Chief of Staff recalled that the threat of mines is not the only threat to free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. 'Obviously,' he said in front of the Defence Commission deputies, 'there is not only the threat of mines, there is also the threat of bargees, those go on merchant traffic and there it is another story. We should use ships to escort, but again intervening in that area means intervening when the conflict has ceased'.

'The Strait of Hormuz,' Berutti Bergotto pointed out, 'is really a strait, so Iran has the ability to attack ships, even if they pass within united waters, so the difficulty of passage remains in both areas, i.e. those near Iranian territorial waters or those in united territorial waters. What I wanted to point out is that just recently, two days ago, three ships passed using the Omani route, they passed without any particular problems, they were not attacked, while others that a week ago were trying to pass by the route that was supposedly open, Iranian territorial waters were victims of attacks, they turned back because first there had been the opening and then after a short time the blockade and they were passing when the passage was blocked.

"The activities that we do in international environments," explained the Navy Chief of Staff, "are done either within NATO coalitions, the European Union or fairly large international coalitions, this is because it helps the effectiveness of the operation: there is an exchange of information, there are more means available and also from the international point of view there is greater security. Therefore, I believe that an operation in Hormuz, even if this is a government decision, can be developed in an international environment. In the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean we are also within a coalition and we are there as Europe, but I would like to say that to date, in both operations, there are only Italian ships. In the Red Sea there is currently only our ship, we are Force Commander, that is, we are the Commander of the Sea, and at the beginning of May a Greek ship will also be part of the Force, but to date there is only one Italian ship," Bergotto concluded