War-game exercises planned off Cork

Armed boardings in search of drugs, live firings of surface and anti-aircraft missiles, helicopter medical evacuation, fire-fighting and "damage control" manoeuvres are due to take place off the Cork coast over the next three days as the Naval Service stages its annual war-game fleet exercises.

Code-named Operation Phoenix, the exercises will be directed by Cdr Rory Costello on board the flagship, LE Eithne, and will test the eight-ship fleet's ability to work as a single unit, or "task group" in naval terminology.

They will also test the capability of the new Naval Service patrol ship, LE Roisin. A second vessel in this new generation of patrol craft is currently being built for the Government in Britain, and the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, is expecting an early delivery, by next June. It is expected that the Deirdre will be decommissioned earlier than its due date, as the Department of Defence is anxious to maintain an eight-ship fleet only.

Members of the Garda and Customs and Excise drugs units will observe the manoeuvres, as members of the national drugs joint task force. The Garda College at Templemore, Co Tipperary, has conducted courses for the Naval Service in armed drug interdiction techniques throughout the year.

The Government's White Paper on Defence recognised that the Naval Service must retain its multi-task profile as the State's single sea-going agency, while being engaged primarily in fishery protection.