Ships Deploy for International Exercise
13 August 2010
Rockingham based Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Arunta and HMAS Toowoomba departed from Garden Island, Rockingham for three months away participating in international maritime exercises and South-East Asian port visits.
Family and friends of the crews of Arunta and Toowoomba gathered on the wharves to farewell the ships for their deployment and they were encouraged by waves and cheers from the well-wishers.
While deployed, Anzac Class frigates Arunta and Toowoomba, will participate in Exercise Kakadu in the Arafura Sea off the coast of Darwin. Arunta and Toowoomba will join other Naval and Air assets from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Japan during the two week exercise. Other Rockingham based Navy ships involved in Exercise KAKADU are HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Sirius, having departed from WA in May. KAKADU is part of Navy’s ongoing training program and is the largest international maritime exercise held in Australian waters this year.
After completion of Exercise KAKADU, Arunta and Toowoomba will sail northwards to South East Asia conducting exercises and other training activities with our South East Asian neighbours. The ships will visit ports in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia as respite from their involvement in another international maritime exercise.
CMDR John Stavridis, Commanding Officer (CO) of HMAS Arunta said “The highlight of this deployment will be the opportunity to exercise and engage with our regional neighbours. Specifically it will afford an excellent opportunity to practice and enhance our individual and collective skills. My crew is also looking forward to exercising with regional navies and is very keen to visit some the more unusual ports in both Indonesia and Malaysia. While it is never easy leaving our loved ones behind, we nevertheless have an excellent deployment ahead of us with some fantastic port visits.”
CMDR Ivan Ingham, the Captain of HMAS Toowoomba said “It will be such a pleasure to exercise with seven other RAN ships and submarines during Exercise KAKADU 2010, let alone the ships from other regional navies. My crew is really looking forward to getting out there and proving what we can do.”
Arunta and Toowoomba will return to Rockingham in November.
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