The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) announced Friday, Sept. 9, that it participated in a recently held Command Post Exercise (CPX) in Singapore to boost its maritime cooperation with foreign counterparts.
The CPX was held at the Multinational Operations and Exercise Center in Changi Naval Base late last month. It was a component of the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) Exercise 2022 which “introduced practices and improved procedures on information sharing and operational cooperation to address maritime challenges.”
The PCG said that 22 partner-nations, including the Philippines, joined the initiative which was spearheaded by the Joint United States Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) through the United States Navy (USN) and co-hosted by the Singaporean Navy.
The Philippine contingent was composed of 12 personnel from the PCG national headquarters, Coast Guard command center, Coast Guard District Southwestern Mindanao, and crew of BRP Tubbataha (MRRV-4401) and BRP Cape Engano (BRP-4411).
During the sea phase and post-operations brief of the CPX, a P-8A maritime patrol aircraft from the US Navy conducted a reconnaissance of fishing vessels in a certain maritime area.
Then, the P-8A established communications with the PCG’s BRP Tubbataha and BRP Cape Engano to transmit the information and provide them with multiple reports about the fishing activities.
The P-8A then continued to pass vessel information to BRP Tubbataha and BRP Cape Engano as it completed the surface plot while the two PCG multi-role response vessels investigated them and forwarded the information to Coast Guard Southwestern Mindanao shore-based units in Zamboanga City. A fixed wing Islander aircraft of the PCG Auxiliary also provided aerial photos of a particular vessel-of-interest (VOI).
Lt. Commander Allan Enrico Alano, of the PCG delegation, said the exercise was crucial in increasing the speed of response, interoperability, mission effectiveness, and unity of effort among multinational force operations within the Indo-Pacific region during crisis action situations.
The workshop also included demonstration of maritime domain awareness tools, information sharing and incident management tools, maritime surveillance capabilities, digital video recording systems, Earth and space imaging, intelligence, and vessel tracking platforms, the PCG added.