Kota Kinabalu, Saturday 22 November 2014 – Today marked the official end of Exercise Hornbill series 24/14, with the closing ceremony taking place at the Submarine Force Headquarters Kota Kinabalu Naval Base, Royal Malaysian Navy. The ceremony was officiated by the guest of honor, Lt Col (L) Yusof bin Masron, the Fleet Commander of the Royal Brunei Navy. Also present at the closing ceremony was the Commander of Naval Region 2, Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), First Admiral Muda Dato’ Pahlawan Mohammad Rosland Bin Omar.This year’s series 24/14 was held from Monday, 17 November 2014 until Saturday, 22 November 2014 with the exercise being conducted at both Brunei and Malaysia waters. The exercise Harbor Phase was conducted at Muara Naval base, Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) while the Sea Phase was conducted in Brunei and Malaysian waters. It ended with a post exercise at Kota Kinabalu Naval Base, RMN. Prior to the closing ceremony, both navies were involved in sports competition and community service. For sports, battle for the Hornbill and BruMal Cup were eventually won by the RMN. The RBN went to Islam Al-Hafidz Primary School to perform community relations. It was aimed to strengthen the relationship between both navies and enhance mutual understanding within the working groups focusing on the development of common doctrines, procedures and tactics.
Lt Col (L) Willie bin Padan, Commanding Officer of KDB DARULEHSAN, acting as Commander Task Group, in his closing remarks gave a summarized report of the planning and execution of the exercises. He mentioned that exercises were conducted safely and successfully achieving a high standard quality. He praised the commitment, professionalism and determination of both navies.
The guest of honor added that the newly Structured Tactical Free Method is now being utilized by the RMN gave added value to the exercise. He pointed out that this year marked an exercise milestone for both navies with the introduction of Helo Operations from not only the RMN but also from the Royal Brunei Air Force. The closing ceremony ended with an official deactivation of Task Group 65.0 which included the signing of the exercise report by the Command Task Group and Deputy Command Task Group witnessed by the Fleet Commander of RBN and the Commander of Naval Region 2.
