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Australia and Singapore have completed amphibious landing craft and aviation training off the east coast of Australia as part of Joint Task Group Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2017.
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HMAS Adelaide, one of the Royal Australian Navy’s Canberra Class amphibious ships, and the Republic of Singapore’s amphibious ship, RSS Resolution, completed the training while deployed off the east coast of Australia.
As a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Joint Task Group Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2017 (IPE 17), HMAS Adelaide and the Republic of Singapore’s Endurance Class RSS Resolution tested their capabilities in an exercise that evaluated the ability of the two nations to operate together should they be tasked to respond to a regional natural or humanitarian disaster.
Over several hours, the ships operated Australian MRH-90 Taipan helicopters and Singaporean landing craft.
Training included cross-deck helicopter operations to Resolution as well as amphibious activities designed to test the ability of Singaporean landing craft to operate in Adelaide’s well dock. All trials proved successful, which Defence said highlighted the strong defence relationship and interoperability shared between Australia and Singapore.
Commander Joint Task Group 661 Captain Jonathan Earley said close co-operation with regional partners is the cornerstone of any Australian response to a natural disaster.
"Activities such as these with our Singaporean friends not only deepens mutual understanding of our respective capabilities in supporting humanitarian events, but also reinforces to the region Australia is ready to help should a disaster occur," CAPT Earley said.
Training with the Singapore ship represents the second international engagement of the IPE 17 deployment. It follows aviation training with the US Navy.
RSS Resolution is in Australian waters as part of the Singaporean unilateral training exercise, Exercise Wallaby.
HMAS Adelaide is leading a task group of several RAN warships including HMA Ships Darwin, Melbourne, Toowoomba, Parramatta and Sirius, for Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2017, an ADF deployment focused on demonstrating the ADF’s humanitarian and disaster relief regional response capability as well as further supporting security and stability in Australia’s near region through bilateral and multilateral engagement, training and capacity building.
