Singapore hosted
the first WESTERN PACIFIC MINE COUNTERMEASURE Exercise (MCMEX 2001).
In port are two Singapore Navy patrol boats, the RSS Brave (95) and
RSS Daring (98). Two U.S. Navy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships
are berthed behind them: the USS Patriot (MCM-7) and USS Guardian (MCM-5).
PHOTO BY PH2 ERIN A. ZOCCO, USN
For the first time,
14 Asia-Pacific navies, including the U.S. Navy, joined in a multinational
naval exercise aimed at helping to maintain the safety of international
waterways. About 1,500 participants representing the 14 navies gathered
in Singapore. The exercise – 1st WESTERN PACIFIC MINE COUNTERMEASURE
Exercise (MCMEX) 2001 – was the first multinational exercise of
its kind. In fact, it was the largest naval exercise, in terms of numbers
of participating countries, ever held in the region.
The exercise was hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy at Tuas Naval
Base and conducted in the Straits of Singapore and the South China Sea.
(Singapore also hosted a simultaneous gathering for the 1st Western
Pacific Diving Exercise.) The exercise area was doubly valuable to participants
because it provided a real and busy environment of commercial ships
and fishing vessels, and because it took place in the most likely area
for a future multinational contingency.
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