Pakistan Navy holds joint exercise with Turkish Navy: spokesman

KARACHI: Pakistan Navy carried out bilateral exercise Turgutreis-III with Turkish Navy here after successfully holding Aman-2019 exercise recently, a Navy spokesman said on Saturday.

The first two Turgutreis drills held in Pakistani and Turkish waters earlier.

According to the spokesman Pakistan Navy’s ships PNS Aslat, PNS Alamgir and maritime long-range aircraft participated in joint operations and war tactics with Turkish Navy.

The bilateral naval exercise will further promote bilateral defence relations, the spokesman said.

A previous exercise covered a wide range of maritime operations encompassing anti-surface, anti-air and anti-submarine warfare as well as maneuvering and communication exercises.

Counter piracy drills were also carried out in which boarding teams demonstrated practical boarding operations onboard a suspect vessel.

The exercise proved mutually rewarding to hone professional skills of participating personnel from both navies and learn from each other’s experiences.

Pakistan Navy ship ‘SAIF’ had earlier participated in joint exercises with the Turkish navy.

The exercises were aimed at enhancing interoperability between participating navies through the development of combined tactics, techniques and practices.

SAIF is fitted with state of the art weapons and sensors for undertaking all types of maritime operations in multi-threat environment, the Navy said.

Turkish Navy earlier also participated in AMAN-2019, a multinational naval exercise hosted by Pakistan from Feb. 8 to 12 in the Arabian Sea.

The biennial maritime exercise kicked off in Karachi with the participation of forces from Turkey, the U.S., Britain, China, Australia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Oman.

In this drill Turkey was represented by the TCG Gokceada, a naval frigate.

The exercise is intended to improve naval coordination between participant states and promote maritime peace and stability.

The first AMAN drill was conducted in 2007. Since then, it has been held regularly every two years.

Turkish naval forces participated in the exercise in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2017.