Singapore participates in counter-terrorism naval exercise

SINGAPORE - The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) will be participating in a counter-terrorism naval exercise with the United States Navy from today until June 24.

Together with navies from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the Southeast Asia Cooperation Against Terrorism (SEACAT) exercise, hopes to enhance the coordination of maritime security responses in the region.

It also aims to improve on the efforts of maritime information-sharing between the region's navies.

During the exercise, the participating navies will also be conducting planning exercises at the Changi Command and Control (C2) Centre at Changi Naval Base.

Other drills include the tracking of ships, and the boarding of US civil resource ships simulating merchant vessels suspected of engaging in terrorist related activities at sea.

Personnel from the RSN’s Maritime Security Task Force, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority will be taking part in the exercise.

Other assets involved include patrol vessels from the RSN, Accompanying Sea Security Teams, patrol boats from the Singapore Police Coast Guard and maritime patrol aircraft from the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

This year's exercise marks the 10th in the series of partnership, which first began in 2002.