USA/Aman

Amer­i­can Forces Press Service 

MANAMA, Bahrain, March 9, 2009 — U.S. Coast Guard Cut­ter Boutwell left Karachi, Pak­istan, today after a four-day port vis­it to par­tic­i­pate in the inter­na­tion­al naval exer­cise Aman 2009, mark­ing the first time a U.S. ship has pulled into Pak­istan since May. 

The 10-day exer­cise, which began March 5, focus­es on air, sur­face and mar­itime secu­ri­ty train­ing. It includes rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 38 coun­tries, as well as ships from 11 nations that include the Unit­ed States, Unit­ed King­dom, Pak­istan and Aus­tralia. The at-sea por­tion of the exer­cise is being con­duct­ed pri­mar­i­ly in the North Ara­bi­an Sea, off the coast of Pakistan. 

“This exer­cise pro­vides U.S. and inter­na­tion­al forces the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work togeth­er and train across the spec­trum of naval dis­ci­plines,” Navy Capt. Rick Williams, direc­tor of the U.S. 5th Fleet Mar­itime Oper­a­tions Cen­ter, said. “Aman 2009 will improve the inter­op­er­abil­i­ty and tac­ti­cal pro­fi­cien­cy between coali­tion nations, and enhance our navies’ effec­tive­ness in sup­port­ing mar­itime secu­ri­ty objectives.” 

U.S. ships par­tic­i­pat­ing in the exer­cise include Boutwell, USS Theodore Roo­sevelt and USS Lake Cham­plain, all assigned to the U.S. 5th Fleet. 

Dur­ing the exer­cise, ships will con­duct sur­face exer­cis­es, air-defense train­ing, explo­sive ord­nance dis­pos­al exer­cis­es, and also will par­tic­i­pate in for­eign offi­cer exchanges. The exer­cise is designed to improve mar­itime secu­ri­ty in the region, strength­en inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships and high­light the impor­tance of mar­itime coop­er­a­tion, offi­cials said. 

Mar­itime secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions enhance sta­bil­i­ty in the mar­itime envi­ron­ment, which pro­motes glob­al pros­per­i­ty, offi­cials not­ed. These oper­a­tions com­ple­ment the coun­tert­er­ror­ism and secu­ri­ty efforts of region­al nations and seek to dis­rupt vio­lent extrem­ists’ use of the mar­itime envi­ron­ment as a venue for attack or to trans­port per­son­nel, weapons or illic­it material. 

(From a U.S. Naval Forces Cen­tral Com­mand news release.) 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)