During the exercise, each participating country sent representatives to join the combined force named CTF 18 to operate simulated campaigns to remedy maritime situations and humanitarian and disaster relief, according to the previously devised plans.

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Naval troops of different contingents join the exercise on computers.

Seven members of the Vietnamese contingent joined four different working groups in communications, training, tactics and rescue missions. During the drills, they were tasked to deal with armed pirates, refugee issues and illegal drug trafficking.

The CPX was operated using a local area network (LAN) in which participating members had to cope with a series of simulated problems as dictated by the host’s computers.

Colonel Nguyen Viet Anh, Deputy-Commander of Brigade 167 of Naval Region 2, the commander of Vietnam’s tactical and staff group, said that this year’s exercise was quite different from last year’s event, particularly the operation of the central command post and the formation of tactical groups. The host country applied I-KISS software, which provided a quick and convenient communication system for participants, he added.

On May 6, the Vietnamese contingent won the first prize at a cooking contest held within the framework of MNEK 2018. On the same day, Vietnamese naval officers enrolled in a 10km run, a beach volleyball match, a tug of war competition and other games.

Also, six engineers of the Vietnamese contingent joined other countries’ counterparts to make a 250m-long concrete road North of Lombok Island. At Carik Port of the island, a Vietnamese military medical team took part in a charity healthcare program with other countries’ forces to raise locals’ awareness of public health and then offered minor treatments to them when needed.

Translated by Trung Thanh