Multinational Exercise SEACAT Emphasises Maritime Security

Maritime Forces from 21 nations convenes off the waters of Singapore from Aug 16-26, 2022 for the annual Exercise Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT).

SEACAT is a multilateral exercise designed to enhance cooperation among Southeast Asian countries and provide mutual support and a common goal to address crises, contingencies, and illegal activities in the maritime domain using standardized tactics, techniques, and procedures. SEACAT 2022 is a return to full-scale, in-person exercise following primarily virtual engagements and non-contact sea phase the previous two years.

This year’s series of drills see the participants from Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Kingdom and Vietnam coming together to enhance cooperation and information-sharing to strengthen regional responses against maritime terrorism and piracy threats in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, and the South China Sea.

Encapsulated in the drills are a three-day maritime security seminar, workshops on Vessel Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and Unmanned Aerial Systems, and a sea phase. The seminar and workshops provide a platform for international participants and subject matter experts to discuss and share on best practices to deal with maritime security threats in Southeast Asia. During the seminar, the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC) also did a sharing on the regional maritime security situation and provided updates on key developments.

This year’s iteration of SEACAT includes a maritime domain awareness seminar and visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) workshop Aug. 16-18. The seminar will feature presentations, live question and answer sessions, panel discussions, and interactive, small group breakout sessions with representatives from all participating nations. The VBSS workshop will be led by members of the US Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team.

An additional aspect of the shore training is an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) workshop that will cover a broad range of UAS and the tactics, procedures, and ways that SEACAT participants use these systems to develop maritime domain awareness. –shp/adj/aaa (Image: RSN)