The Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) started on Monday the naval drill “Asad Al Bahar,” which continues till 3 May 2019.

Vessels of the RNO fleet take part in the exercise, Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

The exercise, held at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, began with a briefing about events and activities of the drill. The participants will execute various activities and competitions during the drill.

The drill comes within the framework of the RNO’s annual training plans that aimed at sharing expertise and sustaining the readiness levels of the RNO fleet and personnel in various naval fields in line with the national tasks undertaken by RNO.

Meanwhile, Oman’s Maritime Security Centre (MSC) carried out ‘Maritime Security Exercise 2019’, with the participation of a number of corps of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and other military and security forces.

The exercise was carried out in the Omani territorial sea according to its implementation plan, in order to achieve the laid national objectives and in accordance with the duties and tasks assigned to the participating military, security and civil institutions and agencies.

The Maritime security exercise is one of the planned exercises in the training program of the Centre for this year.  It aims to coordinate and unify the complementary efforts and work to all parties involved in combating maritime security threats, ensure the safety of maritime navigation lines, review and development of procedures and plans to combat illegal activities, and all forms of organized maritime crime in ports, maritime installations and coasts, in addition to identifying aspects of the problems in the procedures and work to find solutions and the most effective ways to provide them with maritime security.

Commodore Mansour bin Mohammed al-Kharousi, Head of Maritime Security Centre, said: “This exercise is part of the exercises aimed at testing and developing the maritime security system in the Sultanate, and the ability to respond to all maritime threats.”

“The exercise showed the size of the joint cooperation between all military, security and civil authorities related to maritime security, and has proved how efficient it is to play their roles to enhance the level of maritime security in the Sultanate,” he added.