Seychelles hosts major maritime security event |01 February 2016

Seychelles is hosting a major exercise on maritime safety and security dubbed Cutlass Express (CE16).

It is an annual East Africa exercise focusing on increasing regional cooperation and interoperability to enhance maritime safety and security.

CE16 involves East African and Indian Ocean maritime stakeholders in a regional partnership with the United States and European navies.

The opening ceremony of CE16 took place at the Seychelles Coast Guard (SCG) Base, Ile Perseverance on Saturday morning in the presence of chief of staff of the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rosette, among other distinguished guests participating in the CE16 exercise.

In his opening speech to launch the CE16 open, Lt Col. Rosette stated that such exercise will provide the necessary skills to all the countries taking part in it.

“CE16 will be conducted in two locations at sea and multiple locations ashore. At sea, operations will occur in the territorial waters of Djibouti and Seychelles. Ashore locations consist of the maritime operations centres (MOCs) across East Africa, Europe, and the Middle East,” he said.

He added all the members taking part in the CE16 are really motivated to bringing out the best of their abilities.

“Madagascar has come with a naval vessel, Mauritius with one aircraft, France with one naval vessel, Comoros is also being represented and of course Seychelles we are hosting and also taking part with naval and air assets. The Seychelles and its defence forces is glad to host the CE16 and we have made available all our facilities to ensure a successful exercise,” he added.

He also took the opportunity to thank the US and other European partners for this initiative to bring everyone together for the CE16.

Deputy Commodore Tate Westbrook stated that there are 18 nations taking part in the CE16, and that it is the fifth time that such an exercise is taking place.

“We want to improve the CE16 by learning from the CE15 that took place in Mauritius last year. We want to increase the complexity, and the interoperability between nations, between navies and between armed services,” he said.

He pointed out that such an exercise reduces piracy at sea, but now we are witnessing trafficking of narcotics at sea.

Exercise Cutlass Express is an exercise sponsored by US Africa Command (Africom), and focuses on addressing information sharing and coordinated operations among international navies.

Exercise Cutlass Express is yet another pillar that demonstrates US and participant-nations’ commitment to regional stability and maritime security.

The exercise, which started on Saturday after the launch, will last eight days and will include an in-port preparatory phase and three days of at-sea scenarios meant to test and provide feedback.

Currently in its fifth iteration, Cutlass Express puts maritime security in the hands of nations to whom it matters most. It takes the lessons learned from past exercises and expands on it, making this year the best ever.

Nations taking part include Australia, Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, France, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States.