Over 40 international navies coming to Pakistan for Aman 2021

KARACHI: The Pakistan Navy is holding its eighth edition of the annual multinational exercise ‘Aman’ from mid-Feb, in which navies of 46 countries are participating.

Naval participants from European, Eurasian, Asian, American continents are bringing together ships, aircraft, special operation forces and observers for collaborative peace and security of the maritime domain. The Pakistan Navy seeks to enhance interoperability between regional and extra regional navies to promote peace and stability in the region and beyond. From 2006 onwards, piracy and maritime terrorism incidents like those of Somali pirates hijacking commercial ships and crews increased significantly all around the world but especially in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and the Somalia Basin, threatening commercial interests and freedom of the high seas. According to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Center, due to joint global efforts of which Pakistan is a critical part, the piracy and terrorism incidents dropped to 41 by 2019 from 180 in 2017.

The Pakistan Navy is the first regional navy to become a member of the US led and Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces in 2004, to conduct Regional Maritime Security Patrols in southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and choke points off the Maldives. The PN’s very own Task Force-88 is focused to ensure robust security posture in maritime security of Gwadar and adjacent sea-lanes.

The Aman exercise also provides an opportunity for detailed coordination of different navies’ individual rules and regulations and consequently develop and practice tactics critical for joint operations imperative for ensuring safe and secure sea lanes across the world’s oceans. In this context, the sea lines of communications of the Arabian Sea being the jugular of global and regional trade and commerce with multiple chokepoints, need to be protected from traditional and asymmetric threats and from the emerging disruptive communication technologies linked to artificial intelligence and robotics that can potentially threaten digital security including deep-water cables, energy lines and other assets. By training together and evolving common, synchronized strategies and joint tactics to guard and pre-empt the growing global and regional susceptibility to cyber attacks and employing new instruments of cooperation, Aman has provided another proverbial feather in Pakistan Navy’s maritime diplomacy. AMAN is not a strange word to those comprehending vernacular language and its close variants, meaning ‘peace’ and therefore the slogan of the exercise is ‘Together for Peace’.

The sea phase of the drills include practical execution of operational plans and activities finalized during the harbour phase and the International Fleet Review besides international band display, food gala, cultural shows and friendly sports matches.

Scouring the sea from overhead Sea Sultan or Embraer Lineage 1000 aircraft, torpedo-equipped Z9EC heli landing in a gust, EOD teams diving to neutralize underwater mines, daredevil red barrets jumping from the clouds in dark overalls or riding inflatable boats over furiously choppy waters to pounce on unsuspecting terrorists, those silently breaking the sea surface, gun-wielding camo face painted marines hugging the swampy creeks snake closer to enemy, to stealthy submarines lurking beneath the profound and motionless sea for over and subsurface threats, men in white digital camouflage locking targets from their surface combatants, destroyers, corvettes and missile boats cruising over whirling, surging waves all give out a powerful message we are “Together for Peace,” -- back off.