Australia And Malaysia Join Forces

26 August 2009

Two Royal Australian Navy ships have joined their Malaysian counterparts for Exercise Mastex, a combined maritime warfare exercise being conducted in the Malacca Straits, Malaysia.

Adelaide Class Frigate HMAS Darwin and Replenishment ship HMAS Success will take part in the week long exercise, alongside Royal Malaysian Corvettes KD Lekiu and KD Laksamana Hung Nadim.

The bilateral exercise will provide the opportunity for both maritime powers to improve their interoperability and mutual understanding in common aspects of naval warfare.

"During Exercise Mastex, core skills will be practiced in a series of graduated evolutions, culminating in a high end warfare serial," Commanding Officer of HMAS Darwin, CMDR Christopher Smith, CSM, RAN said.

"Professional exchanges and a graduated program, including weapons practices and a structured free play exercise will be also be undertaken. Darwin will demonstrate Royal Australian Navy damage control and fire-fighting lessons learnt from recent work-ups and operational deployments.

"By jointly practising maritime security exercises and anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare techniques, the Navies of Malaysia and Australia will improve their effectiveness for any common taskings in the future," CMDR Smith said.

2009 marks the seventh iteration of the Mastex series, a demonstration of the longstanding and mature relationship that Australia has with Malaysia, and recognition of our common interest in the stability and security of the Southeast Asian region

The RAN maintains a regular bilateral exercise program with Malaysia, with both nations also engaging in multilateral exercises under the Five Power Defence Arrangements framework to which both countries are committed.