LUMUT: The Royal Malaysian Navy's (RMN) guided-missile frigate, KD Lekiu, has completed the Regional Partnership Exercise 2022 (RPEX 22) that lasted 81 days.
Covering four series of exercises in three countries, a total of 171 'men of war' arrived at the RMN's Operation Pier, Tambatan Pangkalan Lumut here today.
Their arrival was welcomed by RMN's Western Fleet Commander, Admiral Datuk Abu Bakar Mohd Ajis, and hundreds of RMN's family members who participated in the exercises.
Abu Bakar said that KD Lekiu was the first RMN ship that has been involved in four exercises continuously for more than 80 days.
He added that the main objective of the missions was to enhance defence diplomacy at the international level via regional cooperation.
"This RPEX 22 was held to be an economy of effort with a fair return. It is also capable of maintaining the confidence of regional partners that RMN can be a partner in dealing with regional maritime security threats," he said in his speech.
Meanwhile, KD Lekiu Commanding Officer Captain Mohd Reduan Ayob said this was the first time and the biggest success of KD Lekiu which involved four exercises at one time.
Mohd Reduan said the biggest success of KD Lekiu was when it was given a chance to lead a task at Exercise Kakadu in Australia.
"When we were at the Exercise Kakadu, for the first time, we were given a huge task as 'Ketua Turus Tugas'. There were other big ships from the United States, Thailand, France and Australia, but we were chosen to lead.
"The trust given by other countries to RMN has proven that our competency is on par with them. For me, this is the biggest success," he said, adding that the crew also faced various challenges such as operational, welfare, logistics and so on throughout all exercises.
"In terms of operations, Mohd Reduan said they were required to interact with foreign countries and he needed to ensure the ship and crew's preparedness and equipped them with high competency.
"For logistics, it was over two months' deployment and we need to have a proper plan and strong support from our base. If not, we will not be sustainable at sea," said the 42-year-old captain.
He also said he needed to ensure that his crew was mentally and physically prepared.
"One of my crew members received news where his wife passed away and another one where his father died, too. I need to ensure that they are emotionally stable and remain focused to join the mission," he said.
KD Lekiu participated in four exercises which were Exercise Malindo Jaya in Indonesia (Aug 29 - Sept 3); Exercise Kakadu in Australia (Sept 12 - Sept 24); Exercise Kerismas in Sabah (Oct 3 - Oct 23); and Exercise Malapura in Singapore (Nov 3 - Nov 14).