MINEHUNTERS Chiddingfold and Grimsby left the broad waters of the Gulf behind and sailed up God’s Highway.The two Bahrain-based ships navigated the tricky Khawr abd Allah as far as Umm Qasr to foster ties with the nascent Iraqi Navy.
Umm Qasr is Iraq’s chief port – and main naval base. For nearly a decade it’s been home to a largely Anglo-American training and advisory team who’ve been helping to forge a new Iraqi Navy in the post-Saddam Hussein world.
The work of the Allied team – in its latest incarnation known as the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission Navy or ITAM-N (Navy News readers will probably remember it best as the NaTT or Naval Transition Team) – is all but done.
The RN vessels spent two days in Umm Qasr seeing the progress made, getting to know their Iraqi counterparts, and laying on a demonstration for international VIPs.
