MUARA, Monday 22 October 2018 – The 18th series of Exercise PENGUIN ended with a closing ceremony which took place at the Multinational Coordination Centre (MNCC), the closing ceremony was accompanied by a Post-Exercise Debrief between the Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Present at the closing ceremony as the Guest of Honor was Captain Zil Husam bin Haji Abd Rahman, Fleet Commander of RBN. Also present were Commander Rasman bin Puteh, Acting Commanding Officer of KDB DARULAMAN as the Commander Task Group (CTG) for Exercise PENGUIN and Lieutenant Commander James Brewster, Commanding Officer of HMAS Launceston as the Deputy Commander Task Group (DCTG).
The closing ceremony began with a summarised report on the 18th series of Exercise Penguin delivered by Commander Rasman bin Puteh, CTG. This report included highlights of the three main phases and agendas of this year’s exercise- being the harbor phase, sea phase and the post-exercise debrief which mainly focused on boarding operations. This was followed by a report signing and an exchange of momentos between the CTG and Lieutenant Commander James Brewster, DCTG and also between the ships’ Commanding Officers of RBN and RAN. The closing ceremony ended with a closing remark conveyed by the DCTG which emphasised the importance of this bilateral tie in fostering the relationship and mutual understandings between both naval forces.
Exercise PENGUIN aims to enhance the professionalism and interoperability of both forces by sharing knowledge and experiences. Over the last five days, RBN and RAN have achieved several objectives of the exercise. Both navies have shared and strengthened their naval professionalism through combined training and various sea evolutions. Opportunities were also given for personnels involved to practice their skills in serials such as Night Encounter Exercise (NEX), Contact of Interest (CCOI) tracking and combined boarding operations.
This Exercise also included the Penguin Cup, a fun sport interaction between RBN and RAN. The Penguin Cup included friendly matches of volleyball, beach soccer and the tug of war between both navies and overall was won by RAN. The Penguin Cup prize presentation was presented by the Fleet Commander of RBN during the closing ceremony.
