Naval Staff Chief Admiral Muhammad Asif Sandila said that the complex geo-strategic situation of the region demanded a high state of preparedness. He was speaking to the 2012 edition of the annual Pakistan Maritime Exercise Sea Spark that concluded with the debrief session held at PNS Jauhar on Tuesday.
The Chief said that the exercise was well utilised to validate Pakistan Navy’s (PN) concept of security and counter piracy plan, utilisation of ships, submarines, aircrafts and other components, employment of PAF and AEW aircrafts in support of maritime ops and integration of Z9-EC helicopters to PN Fleet.
He said that the effective ground based air defense and successful firing of surface to air missiles and radar controlled guns was a source of satisfaction.
The Sea Spark Exercise, a permanent feature of Pakistan Navy’s operational calendar, was conducted with the main objective to assess the operational readiness and provide an opportunity to the Officers and Men to operate under multi-threat environment and exercise responses accordingly.
The Exercise planning was based on a manifestation of the Chief’s declared strategic priorities of “Ops Readiness and Training”. All operational ships, submarines, aircrafts, marines, special forces and establishments, which also included supporting units from Pakistan Army and PAF, participated to cover the entire gamut of Naval Operations. Officer Conducting Exercise (OCE) and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff Operations Rear Admiral Hasham Bin Siddique presented the analysis of the tactical actions followed by each Force and concurrently gave recommendations to further improve the responses accordingly.
PN ready to defend homeland: naval chief
