BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Saturday 15 June 2013 – This afternoon a briefing session was held where the respective groups under the Exercise Controller for the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Humanitarian and Disaster Relief and Military Medicine Exercise (HADR & MM Ex) presented reports to the steering committee of the exercise.
The objective of the briefing was to update on the progress and preparation for the multinational exercise. The steering committee comprises of Brunei Darussalam, People’s Republic of China, Japan, Republic Singapore, and Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
At the end of the briefing, the Chairman of the ADMM-Plus multinational exercise, First Admiral Dato Seri Pahlawan Abdul Aziz bin Haji Mohd Tamit, Joint Force Commander Royal Brunei Armed Forces shared his insights on the preparation of the exercise.
He stated that extensive preparations have been undertaken so as to ensure that the planning aspect of the exercise is solid. On infratructure side, the First Admiral stated that the Multi-National Coordination Centre (MNCC) has been completed. The MNCC, he added, is the core of all coordination, planning and execution of commands from various participating nations. These nations have put up their officers as chiefs of staff as well as operators at the command centre to ensure that the exercise is well coordinated, executed and planned properly and safely conducted. He also emphasized that the command-operating picture is important, and hence the MNCC is an essential element of this exercise.
The First Admiral further stated that with the involvement of 18 ADMM-Plus countries, some nations have had the opportunity to work together either bilaterally or trilaterally. But for some, he added, it is their first time to participate in a multilateral setting. In light of this, it is important to first integrate these forces prior to the exercise proper. The Force Integration Training (FIT) was planned for this purpose and to ensure that all components at command levels, such as troops on the ground, medical, air, naval, engineering, and supporting components which is inclusive of logistics support come together, work together to ensure that every player knows and understand the exercise standard operating procedure (SOP) that has been produced by steering committee members. He also added that the SOP has little oversights and can be followed by all troops effectively.
So this integration, he added, will not only allow everyone to work together but also know one another personally from those various countries. So for FIT to be implemented, during the exercise the troops will know their buddies personally, which is a must.
The First Admiral also stated that the feedback received so far has been positive. This, he hopes will be sustained throughout the exercise, as well as beyond the exercise. The First Admiral also went to reflect some points from the steering committee. For example, he stated that china has contributed a lot of use on how things to be conducted during the exercise, while Vietnam contributed on HADR element and in the production of SOP. On military medicine, he added, Singapore and Japan has came up extensive preparation prior to arrival of forces, to ensure all steering committee members and troops are well ahead of other troops and hence prepare for the successful conduct of the exercise.
As chairman of the ADMM-Plus multinational joint exercise, the First Admiral expressed his pleasure and excitement in seeing the results or outcome of the extensive planning, that had taken place since last year from the Initial Planning Conference (IPC), Mid-Planning Conference (MPC), and Final Planning Conference (FPC), taking shape as planned. It is indeed a big endeavour, the First Admiral added, for himself and for the host country Brunei Darussalam to undertake such a big initiative and deliverable, especially as Brunei Darussalam holds the stewardship for the ADMM and ADMM-Plus this year. He also added that, to receive positive feedback from the 18 participating countries in an inaugural exercise is a very good thing from Brunei Darussalam. The First Admiral admitted that, as Chairman of the exercise, he cannot deliver this exercise alone. It is obviously the hardwork of the host country staff, as well as steering committee member staff, who came together and worked together to ensure the planning is put into details so that the exercise can take place.
