Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) patrol ships Andromache and Constant sailed back to Seychelles from Port Louis, Mauritius late on Monday this week following their involvement in the sixth iteration of the annual multinational maritime exercise Cutlass Express.
The two ships left Port Victoria for Mauritius on January 25, 2017.
Maritime forces from Eastern Africa, West Indian Ocean nations, Europe and the United States, as well as several international organisations took part in Cutlass Express 2017.
Besides the two ships, Seychelles also deployed one Dornier maritime patrol aircraft from the Seychelles Air Force (SAF).
A total of 77 Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) personnel took part in the exercise which took place in the vicinity of two operational hubs: Djibouti (Djibouti) and Port Louis (Mauritius) from January 30 to February 8, 2017.
The nine days of exercise included an in-port preparatory phase and three days of underway drills which tested participating nations’ ability to respond to illicit trafficking, piracy, illegal fishing, and search and rescue situations.
The exercise leveraged The Djibouti Code of Conduct, of which 20 nations are signatory to, as a framework for exercising information sharing practices between Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs) and enforcing international law of the sea.
The U.S. Naval War College facilitated a four-day senior leaders’ seminar with Cutlass Express participating nations to promote the development of national maritime strategies and the development of operational concepts and capabilities to operationalise maritime strategy.
Seychelles was represented at the seminar by the SPDF Chief of Staff Colonel Michael Rosette and SCG Commander Colonel Simon Dine.
“The exercise was a success, and once again it has provided the regional forces with an opportunity to interact and train together,” said Colonel Rosette. “Such interaction will eventually lead to better collaboration in the future, and surely contribute to enhance maritime safety and security throughout the region.”
Exercise Cutlass Express is one of three Africa-focused regional “Express” series exercises facilitated by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet (CNE-CNA/C6F). The exercise falls under Africa Partnership Station, the umbrella programme for the Express series exercises and other capacity-building initiatives throughout Africa.
Nations involved in the Cutlass Express 2017 included Comoros, Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Turkey, Canada, Uganda, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, and the United States.
