Partnership strengthened as exercise concludes

One of the most significant exercises for Australia and its regional security partners has concluded.

Exercise BERSAMA SHIELD 2014 allowed the Australian Defence Force to join with the defence forces of Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom to test their collective war fighting capability and interoperability.

Commander Micheal Jacobson, who led Australia’s involvement, said BERSAMA SHIELD was a resounding success.

“The exercise focused on building our capability to work with the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) member nations,” Commander Jacobson said.

“Our people faced a wide variety of exercise threats and they worked together to overcome them.”

BERSAMA SHIELD 2014 was designed to further enhance relationships under the FPDA, which have been building since its inception in 1971.

In total, 53 aircraft from the five nations flew over 750 missions. This air effort was supported by five naval vessels and personnel working in areas such as operations, planning, logistics and maintenance.

Australia’s contribution to the exercise included Royal Australian Navy vessels HMAS Sheean and HMAS Sydney, two Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orions, an E-7A Wedgetail, a KA350 King Air aircraft, and more than 500 ADF personnel.

The FPDA is the longest standing multilateral arrangement in South East Asia and has continued to maintain its relevance in the contemporary security environment.

Media Note:
Imagery is available at:
http://images.defence.gov.au/S20141481

Vision will be fed to the Parliamentary Press Gallery later today.

Please note the correct spelling of Micheal Jacobson’s name.

Media contact:
Defence Media Operations (02) 6127 1999