Maritime Squadron
Maritime Squadron tests the sea component: basing, roles, vessels and coordination.
Role and basing
The squadron is based at Hay Wharf, Floriana. Its roles include maritime surveillance, search and rescue, border control, fisheries protection, pollution response and support to civil authorities. It operates under FHQ tasking and works with the Air Wing, the Police, Customs and, when relevant, Frontex-coordinated operations.
Assets and operations
The force includes offshore patrol vessels, with P61 as the known example, inshore patrol boats and rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Boarding teams are trained to board, search and secure vessels. The squadron does not decide immigration status; it detains and transfers people to the competent civil authorities.
Worked example
A suspected migrant boat is reported. FHQ tasks an offshore patrol vessel. The OPV locates the boat, launches a RHIB with a boarding team, secures the vessel, gives basic medical triage and transfers the people to the police and immigration authorities. The reasoning is legal: the squadron provides the maritime capability; civil authorities make status decisions.
Traps
Do not call every vessel a warship or use naval ranks incorrectly. Do not say the squadron grants asylum or refuses entry. Do not ignore sea state, fuel and crew endurance in planning answers.