Australien — Minor War Vessels concentrate off Darwin

The Minor War Ves­sel Con­cen­tra­tion Peri­od (MWVCP) sea phase has com­menced in waters off Dar­win, with five Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy ship’s prac­tis­ing gen­er­al mariner, sur­face and amphibi­ous war­fare skills.

Dur­ing the week-long activ­i­ty, HMA Ships Glenelg, Pirie, Bund­aberg, Balik­pa­pan and Betano will work focus on col­lec­tive com­pe­ten­cies includ­ing board­ing oper­a­tions, tac­ti­cal manoeu­vring, and seamanship. 

“Dar­win based 2nd Cav­al­ry Reg­i­ment., with an Aus­tralian Light Armoured Vehi­cle (ASLAV), Gen­er­al Motor Vehi­cle and three Uni­mogs, will join Navy in an amphibi­ous land­ing, sim­u­lat­ing a non-com­bat­ive evac­u­a­tion oper­a­tion. The activ­i­ty will prac­tise relo­cat­ing to a place of safe­ty non-com­bat­ants threat­ened in a for­eign coun­try,” said Com­man­der Mine War­fare, Hydrog­ra­phy and Patrol Boat Force, CAPT Vaugh­an Rixon. 

“Mar­itime inter­cep­tion skills will also be honed with board­ing oper­a­tions prac­ticed on the mer­chant ship MV Sap­phire Bay with aer­i­al sup­port pro­vid­ed by a Navy Augus­ta A109E heli­copter from 723 Squadron. 

“Gun­nery shoots will also be con­duct­ed against towed air targets. 

“This exer­cise is an impor­tant part of Navy’s ongo­ing train­ing pro­gram, aimed at enhanc­ing its capa­bil­i­ty to pro­tect Aus­tralia and its inter­ests,” CAPT Rixon said. 

MWVCP is part of ongo­ing efforts to improve ADF capa­bil­i­ty to pro­tect Aus­tralia and its inter­ests, and enhance inter­op­er­abil­i­ty with­in the ADF and with the many agen­cies involved in the bor­der pro­tec­tion task. It is a care­ful­ly planned activ­i­ty and will be con­duct­ed with­in strict envi­ron­men­tal, safe­ty and risk man­age­ment constraints. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Source:
Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence