Navies comb South China Sea in mine-sweeping exercise
Navies comb South China Sea in mine-sweeping exercise
SINGAPORE (AFP): Navies from 16 mainly Asia-Pacific countries combed the South China Sea on Monday in a mine-sweeping exercise aimed at improving multinational efforts to keep the region's vital shipping lanes safe.
Anti-mine helicopters, hunter ships and specially trained divers carried out the exercises off the Indonesian island of Bintan, detecting their first dummy mine in hours, military officials said.
The 12-day inaugural Western Pacific Mine Countermeasure Exercise and First Western Pacific Diving Exercise, the largest mine countermeasures exercise to be conducted in the region, opened last week.
But Monday was the first time that actual anti-mine operations were carried out as the forces spent last week conducting unit- level training.
Fifteen ships and 1,500 personnel from Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam are participating.
Captain Ralph Young, commander of a U.S. Navy mine countermeasure squadron, said the simultaneous deployment of helicopters, anti-mine ships and divers enabled forces to cover large areas quickly.
The U.S. navy is the only force to deploy mine-sweeping helicopters in the exercise.
Captain Charles Smith, commanding officer of a U.S. command and control ship, the USS Inchon, said it was rare for 16 nations to work together in such a way.
"When was the last time you saw something like that?" he asked reporters.
Young said the strong presence of the U.S. Navy "underscores the United States' commitment to regional cooperation and stability in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific."
Of the challenges mobilizing a multinational team, he said: "Operations have been smoother than I would have thought. I had expected language and communication barriers but so far, things have been going very well."
Smith said it was important to guard the safety of regional waterways as more than half of the world's shipping tonnage passes through the Malacca Straits, Singapore Straits and the South China Sea.