Vietnam’s warship joins multilateral naval exercise

At 6am March 23, Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang weighed its anchor and started to head for the rendezvous, preparing for the exercise.

The exercise was participated by 25 naval ships consisting of 10 host’s ships and 15 from others countries. Major Mai Van Doanh (third from right), Political Commissar of Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang, stayed close to the warship’s crew-members all time to give timely instructions.

Having joined other multilateral exercises before, Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang exactly followed the exercise’s instructions in terms of speed, distance and information sharing in the formation, which was highly valued by peers.

Warship JS Teruzuki of Japan in the formation. US, Italian, Australian, Singaporean, Thai… navies also sent ships to the exercise.

US warship Coronado during the exercise. All ships joining the exercise started by entering the formation with the minimum distance among ships of 0.25 nautical mile.

Ships in the exercise then formed an arrow shape, which required precise coordination among ships due to the fact that it is easy for ships to collide or for the formation to break. When the arrow was formed, photos were taken from helicopters as the ships in the formation all advanced at the speed of 10 nautical miles per hour.

 Then crew-members of the ships had 10 minutes to take photos for souvenirs.

Senior Colonel Nguyen Dinh Hung, Deputy Chief of Naval Region 4, Head of the Vietnam’s mission, also had his photo taken. This was surely one of his memorable events though he had joined many maritime exercises before.

While other troops went for photos, troops of the Energy and Vitality Control Center of Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang were still on duty at their post.

After the arrow was formed, the warships left the formation, split into two groups and reached their new positions, ready for the maritime security exercise. The groups formed a Mahsuri fan shape each; then, from the outer, Ship PRU reached the central point and other ships advanced to their positions to form the Matsirat fan shape. As the maritime security exercise’s scenario went, Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang of Vietnam played the guard role and maintained security while other ships sent their canoes to suspicious ships for inspection. 

At the end of the maritime security exercise, ships traveled in a line to salute one another and ended the exercise. This was also a difficult task as the last ship in the line had to surpass the ship in front of it to the right to salute. Other ships followed suit until completion. 

Troops of Frigate 011 - Dinh Tien Hoang saluted international friends at 4pm the same day. LIMA multilateral naval exercise was the last activity of LIMA 2017. The Vietnam’s mission successfully completed its tasks, showing the consistent international integration policy of the Party, State and Vietnam People’s Army, contributing to the maintenance of security in general and maritime security in particular in the region and the world. 

Frigate 011 - Dinh Dinh Tien mooring in Langkawi waters.