Article Posted on : - Oct 13, 2010

Royal Navy's HMS Tireless submarine surfaces in the Gulf of Oman during the anti-submarine warfare exercise with French, Australian and US navies. A Royal Australian Navy photo

GULF OF OMAN (BNS): The naval forces of UK, US, France and Australia have concluded a key international anti-submarine warfare exercise off the coast of Oman recently.

The exercise, led by Bahrain-based United Kingdom Maritime Component Command (UKMCC), was aimed at enhancing anti-submarine warfare capability in warm water environments and promoting inter-operability between ships and aircraft from a variety of nations, the UK Navy said.

The centerpiece of the “cat and mouse style” exercise was the UK Navy’s Trafalgar class submarine HMS Tireless. While it played the role ‘mouse’, the duties of ‘cat’ were shared between the Australian frigate HMAS Melbourne and the French frigate FS Dupleix.

UK Navy’s Merlin helicopters and US’s P3 Orion maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft acted as “eyes in the sky” during the wargame.

The UKMCC controls all Royal Navy warships, aircraft and personnel in the Middle East maritime region.