The Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) is taking the military exercises to thoroughly defend the sovereignty of the State and territory and to ensure strong and dynamic defence capability. This year’s Sea Shield-2022 is being taken with the participation of submarines Minye Theinkhathu and Minye Kyaw Htin from the Myanmar Navy in the Myanmar seas off the coast of Rakhine State as of 1 July. Hence, it is not enough for operating capable war vessels in a three-dimensional operation arena but all need to always take training for combat readiness without forgetting the three readiness. The Sea Shield-2022 was successfully conducted with the participation of 20 war vessels including frigates, submarines and helicopters from the Tatmadaw (Air) amid the bad monsoon season at the exercise area.
As the VBSS exercise, war vessels found a suspect foreign commercial vessel passing the Myanmar waters. War vessel Mottama asked the vessel facts and informed it about receiving inspection under the ROE. But, the suspect vessel did not stop to accept inspection. So, Navy Seals conducted the Visit, Board, Search and Seizure procedure aboard the suspect with the use of an anchor launcher. They performed the inspection of documents, investigating crew members, cabins, cargo house and engine room. In inspection, they found the suspect vessel carried illegal cargoes. So, Navy Seals seized the suspect vessel as a training pattern.
Then, Frigate Hsinbyushin and Frigate Kyansittha performed the CASEX A-2 exercise to conduct joint surveillance of submarines. The war vessels in the exercise changed the battle line formation to attack the targets of the enemy at the sea in the marine enemy defence operation zone and totally assaulted targets of enemies with heavy weapons. These exercises improved year by year. Moreover, the nature and characteristics of exercises were thoroughly performed year after year. These exercises aim to enable Tatmadaw members to have friendliness with battlefields and have skills to utilize the power of the weapons.
Only when participants in the exercise have good morale and capabilities will an exercise be successful. Although the naval exercises were held as naval and air force joint operations in the past, the Tatmadaw (Navy) has been upgraded to the three-dimensional combat-ready navy at present. Last year’s exercise used only one attack submarine. This year’s exercise used two different types of submarines to have a great exercise experience. Myanmar possesses some 1,300 miles of coastal line with more than 144,000 square miles of water territory. Hence, the Navy alone cannot cover the vast water territory. At present, the Navy is being upgraded to become the Three Dimensional Combat Ready Navy to fully protect the specific economic zone of Myanmar seas for the first phase.
