Brunei Joins Security Exercise At Sea
By Sonia K and Azaraimy HH

Bandar Seri Begawan - Rear Admiral William R Burke Commander, Logistics Group, Western Pacific Commander, Task Force 73 made a courtesy call to Commander of the Royal Brunei Navy Lt Col (L) Joharie bin Hj Metussin at the Royal Brunei Navy, Muara yesterday afternoon.

Rear Admiral Burke was in the country for a day's visit to the Royal Brunei Navy.

The US Navy routinely conducts exercises with navies in the region to build and enhance proficiencies ina variety of mutually beneficial skill areas.

The fifth annual South East Asian Cooperation Against Terrorism (Seacat) maritime security exercise got underway on May 20 with the departure of US Navy task from Okinawa, Japan.

Seacat is a week-long at-sea exercise designed to highlight the value of information sharing and multinational coordination within a scenario that gives participating navies practical maritime interdiction training opportunities.

The Seacat model was designed to contribute to regional coordination efforts that support cooperative responses to terrorism and transnational crimes at sea. The US Navy task group comprises of Frigate USS Crommelin, Destroyer USS Hopper, the Cutter USCGC Sherman, and Rescue and Salvage ship USS Salvor.

With liaison officers from the Royal Brunei Navy, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines on board USS Tortuga, the task group's command ship serves as an information fusion centre, as well as a simulated rogue merchant vessel while transiting to the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, Brunei RBAF observer will board the military sealift command ship MV Button playing the role of a commercial ship in distress.

In an interview with the Bulletin, the admiral talked about the purpose of his visit as well as his views on Seacat.

What is the purpose of your visit? One purpose was it was a convenient place to get off because it is very- close with one of the countries we're working with and it gives me an opportunity to meet with some of the a naval folks we work with in the exercise.

What do you hope to achieve in this visit? Primarily I hope for a chance to meet people. On a larger level, the Seacat exercise is a great exercise for South East Asia such as Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand so we plan to do is look at ways to address transnational threat and how we as navies would cope with it.

What's the scope of cooperation between the US Navy and the Brunei Navy?

We cooperate on a lot of levels. Allowing us to fly in here is a level of cooperation and we have ships that will come in here later in December and an aircraft here now. On an exercise perspective, the Brunei Navy ship has been working with us right now in this Seacat exercise and additionally we have a Brunei naval officer whp is on board the Tortuga who is working with a group of officers from South East Asia as well as the US who are trying to track some of these ship that are simulated to be doing bad things. So there is great cooperation with the Brunei Navy. Do you have any comments about the Brunei Navy? How they are performing and all?

I did get to see the ship in action and I did see the Brunei Liaison Officer. He and the team are doing very well. It's not a one-nation game because we're talking about the transnational issues so it involves the cooperation of all the countries in the region. And I think they're doing very well.

Seacat is not a multilateral exercise, right? Then why are the liaison officers embarked together in the same ship? No, each navy's contribution to the exercise scenario is bilateral in nature with the US Navy and based in each navy are individual capabilities and its own goals. And in this day and age of high operational tempo and a myriad of real world force commitments where assets are often scare, bringing the liaison officers together and conducting what equates to six bilateral exercises simultaneously makes good business sense and had tremendous training value for the US Navy.

The take-away from training efforts such as this are directly applicable to anti-terrorism and anti-piracy efforts. Additionally, we feel that personal relationships built by these types of opportunities are mutually beneficial.

What do the participating countries contribute to the exercise in the way of assets and capabilities?

Each, country's contribution is based on bilateral exercise goals agreed-upon between itself and the US Navy during the exercise-planning phase. Countries may use indigenous capabilities as a means to meet these goals. However, I would refer you to the individual nations to address their participation.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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