The Philippine Navy's (PN) Philippine Fleet (PF) officially concluded this year's iteration of Exercise "Pagbubuklod," its unilateral training activity, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, in its headquarters at the Naval Base Heracleo Alano in Sangley Point, Cavite.
Rear Adm. Nichols Driz, PF commander, graced the closing ceremony of the drills and expressed confidence that it enabled the sailors to develop, evaluate, validate and sustain the coherence of their warfighting doctrines and platforms interoperability.
"The exposure of our personnel to the different capabilities, old and new, as well as our limitations provided a holistic understanding of how we should fight as one," Driz said.
“I firmly believe that it is our capacity and commitment to L.E.A.D. - which stands for learn, enhance, adapt, and develop -that will propel Philippine Fleet to sustain different capacities and acquire new capabilities,” the Fleet Commander added.
Exercise Pagbubuklod, which translates to "unity," was spearheaded by the Fleet Training and Doctrines Center (FTDC) with its superintendent, Capt. Lorenzo Bolor Jr., as the exercise director.
It began on July 25, featuring a series of subject matter expert exchanges, tabletop exercises, shipboard lectures, in-port training activities at Naval Operating Base-Subic.
The highlight of the exercise were the at-sea events where participating personnel and assets such as the BRP Fort San Antonio Abad (AGS701), BRP Manuel Gomez (PC388), BRP Carlos Albert (PC375), and NH434 aircraft simulated various scenarios of maritime security operations at the vicinity of Bataan.
Sailor reservists also took an active role during the exercise which aimed to acquaint them with the organization and update them about the latest capabilities of the Navy like the well deck operations, anti-submarine warfare capability, and other capability-based shipboard tours aboard BRP Jose Rizal (FF150), BRP Conrado Yap (PS39), BRP Davao Del Sur (LD602) and BRP Tarlac (LD601).
A "hotwash" activity served as the penultimate chapter of the exercise where the aprticipating troops evaluated and assessed the just-concluded training toward developing sound operational concepts of the Navy's interoperability in addressing security threats in the maritime environment. (Martin A. Sadongdong)