On Saturday 6 August, Rear Admiral Jan Kaack (German Navy) handed over Force Command of the EU’s counter-piracy Operation Atalanta to Commodore René Luyckx (Netherlands Navy).
The new FHQ staff, embarked in Netherlands Navy warship HNLMS Tromp, is made up of ten European Union Member states, as well as personnel from the EU’s partner nation, Djibouti.
Commodore Luyckx will lead the EU Naval Force at sea for approximately four months. This is not his first deployment in the region. Commodore Luyckx participated in Atalanta in 2015 as the commanding officer of HNLMS Johan de Witt, which hosted Rear Admiral Jonas Haggren (Swedish Navy) and his staff of Atalanta’s nineteenth rotation.
Rear Admiral Kaack has been the EU Naval Force Commander onboard FGS Bayern, since March 2016.
