The minesweeper Fulda has set sail from the Kiel-Wik naval base on the Baltic Sea bound for the Mediterranean where it will initially be integrated into a NATO mine countermeasures group. Its highly specialized equipment for tracking down and destroying sea mines could lend significant support to NATO 's anti-mining operations, should Germany's conditions for participating in an international operation in the Strait of Hormuz be met, and the Fulda would be in a more convenient position. Since