Falmouth’s adopted ship the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Mounts Bay is doing sterling work policing the Mediterranean to counter illegal arms trafficking to Libya.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary took over from the destroyer HMS Diamond, whose crew carried out the role for two months, while Mounts Bay underwent planned maintenance, as well as playing a role in a joint maritime exercise Albanian Lion earlier this month.

Mounts Bay’s role will remain tackling the movement of arms, and she will provide a picture-building capability to help enforce the UN Security Council Resolution prohibiting the trafficking of arms to Libya.

The Type 45 Destroyer has conducted wide-area maritime surveillance to establish operating patterns in the area and then, when appropriate, boarded vessels suspected of supporting the illegal importation of weapons and ammunition.

This forms part of Operation Sophia, focused on tackling human smugglers and arms traffickers who endanger the lives of migrants who seek to travel to Europe.

RFA Mounts Bay and the ro-ro Eddystone took part in Exercise Albanian Lion with HM ships Bulwark and Ocean as Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel joined Albanian forces for an exercise which is part of the Royal Navy’s annual deployment of a crisis-focused amphibious task group, the Joint Expeditionary Force Maritime.

Last month the UK provided RFA Mounts Bay to support a Danish-led maritime operation, escorting a Danish transport ship through the Mediterranean as it carried the remaining chemical weapons from Libya’s stockpile, which were destroyed under international supervision in 2014.