For one week in November, a working passenger ferry off the Dalmatian coast doubled as a training range. Croatian special forces and elite police units ran a joint maritime security exercise in the waters around Split from 5 to 11 November 2026, and the star prop was a Jadrolinija ferry — the country's biggest ferry operator lending its vessel to the operation.
The drill brought together the Croatian Armed Forces' Special Operations Command and the Special Police Unit of the Split-Dalmatia Police Administration. Over seven days, the teams worked on shared planning, special reconnaissance, and rehearsed scenarios for boarding a moving vessel and taking control of it by force — the kind of tactic known as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure, or VBSS.
The finale was the full ship seizure. RHIB fast boats closed in from the water while a Croatian Air Force Mi-171Sh helicopter delivered personnel from above, with both military and police units operating side by side. Brigadier Ivan Miloš, who commands the Special Operations Command, flagged that boarding a vessel on open water carries a particularly high tactical risk and demands precise coordination between everyone involved.
Why should this matter to anyone planning a holiday on the Adriatic? Because the exercise is essentially about the safety of the ferries travellers rely on every summer. Danijel Bradarić of the Split special police unit noted that the Split-Dalmatia area — with its long coastline, scattering of islands and heavy seasonal traffic — is exactly the kind of environment where maritime security matters. His standout figure: Jadrolinija alone moves roughly five million passengers a year in Split-Dalmatia County. If you've ever stood on the deck of a catamaran from Split to Hvar, you were one of that crowd.
The exercise also drew support from the Croatian Army, the Intelligence Regiment and the Navy, and both commanders described the military-police partnership as an ongoing programme rather than a one-off. Croatia's position as one of Europe's top summer coastal destinations makes keeping those sea routes secure a year-round job, not just a peak-season one.
No ferry services were disrupted — this was a planned training event with the operator's cooperation, so the practical takeaway for travellers is reassurance rather than warning. If anything, it's a reminder that the Adriatic's busy ferry network sits behind a serious security apparatus, and that Split remains the beating heart of Croatian island-hopping.
