MUARA, Thursday, 31 Aug 2017 - The Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) participated alongside nine other navies in the annual multilateral Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) Field Training exercise (FTX) from 28th to 31st August 2017. This year’s exercise saw a number of navies participating from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
For the first time, the SEACAT coordination Centre will be located at two places; at the Changi Command and Control Centre (CC2C) , Changi Naval Base and the Multinational Coordination Centre (MNCC) Brunei. In MNCC Brunei was manned by laison officers from RBN, Indonesian Navy, Indonesian Coast Guard, Phillipine Navy, Phillipine Coast Guard, United States Navy and United States Coast Guard.
CC2C and MNCC served as the Southeast Asian Maritime Information Centre for the SEACAT exercises and provided real time updates on the regional maritime picture and coordinated responses to maritime threats. The Liaison Officers at CC2C and MNCC identified vessels suspected of illegal activities and alerted the forces out at sea to assist them to track, coordinate and defuse these maritime threats. The responses included compliant boarding by an Accompanying Sea Security Team, and search and locate efforts by each countries’ enforcement agencies.
On 31st August 2017, Field Training Exercise (FTX) in Brunei Waters was successfully conducted, which involves KDB DARUSSALAM in detecting, locate and track USNS MILLINOCKET, simulated as Critical Contact of Interest (CCOI) which ended with compliant boarding exercise.
The SEACAT series of exercises aims to enhance information-sharing and coordination of maritime security responses to maritime terrorism and piracy threats in the region. First established in 2002, this year marked the 16th anniversary of the SEACAT series of exercises.
