M'sia in major naval exercise
Published on: Saturday, August 25, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: The Royal Malaysian Navy's KD Lekiu recently joined the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) 18 of the 26th series at Hawaii, United States of America.Eastern Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Datuk Abdul Rahman Ayob said Malaysia was among the 25 countries that were part of the world's biggest maritime exercise that included not only the nation's Frigate-class ship but also others such as 47 battleships, five submarines, 29 maritime patrol aircraft along with 200 fighter planes and helicopters.Rahman said the team led by its Commanding Officer Commander Suhaimi Jumahat departed from Lumut, Perak which took 31 days to reach Hawaii for the exercise coordinated by the United States Navy which was carried out for 20 days with other countries such as South Korea, Indonesia and India, among others.
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"KD Lekiu and its members left Lumut for Hawaii on May 25 and arrived on June 26."This year's participation is a test of our ability in operating the navy's vessel at long distance as it took KD Lekiu a total of 11,000 nautical miles. The distance from Lumut to Hawaii is 6,500 nautical miles."But during the journey, the team made a number of stops in Kota Kinabalu, Cebu City in the Philippines, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls Island, next to Hawaii. It took about a month to reach the destination," he told reporters after greeting the crew of KD Lekiu at the Sepanggar Naval Base, Friday.He also said the exercises that were carried out were aimed to test the ship as well as the crew's preparedness in various aspects.
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"The ship carries 145 crew who were part of the voyage and they had experience themselves through the training exercise."Another proud matter to be highlighted was that although it was a long journey, KD Lekiu managed to provide a high level of preparations during this assignment period," he added.
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Rahman said KD Lekiu was chosen because it is one of the best ship that the Royal Malaysian Navy has that could cover the requirements in the training exercise."KD Lekiu has three-dimensional ability, making it suitable for the exercise that was carried out in Hawaii."If we sent other vessels, maybe it is incapable of coping with the exercise but the KD Lekiu has the capability to participate in all spectrum of exercises," he said.Rahman said among the activities was Officer Conducting Serial where training was carried out with submarines, manoeuvring training and surface combat involving firing of vessel's main cannon, an innovation competition was also held in which KD Lekiu was named champion for producing their very own Floating DC (Damage Control) bag.Meanwhile, Suhaimi said the Floating DC bag was a simple concept and was mainly from the existing DC Bag which was modified into something that would aid the crew and contribute massively in case of emergency."In case of floods in the ship, this bag will float and it is equipped with tools just like a tool box."All this time it was just a common bag. But we innovated it and changed the bag into floatable because if a ship is filled with water, the bag will be able to float which would ease the members to find the suitable tools needed for such situation."The bag is also attached with a light reflector because in case of floods, the surroundings would be dark and this would easily be visible for the members, hence speeding up the repairing process to curb the floods," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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