'AMAN-13' international naval drill concludes
By Li Shen
China.org.cn, March 9, 2013.
On Friday, the "AMAN-13" multi-national naval exercise concluded on the North Arabian Sea, Pakistan.
Naval ships from 14 countries, including China, the United States, Britain and Pakistan, joined a five-day naval drill in the Arabian Sea from March 4, involving 24 ships, 25 helicopters, and special forces. [Li Shen/China.org.cn]
The last day of exercises included formation flying, refueling at sea, an anti-piracy demonstration and surface firing.
Starting at 11:40 Karachi Time (Beijing Time 2:40 p.m.), helicopters from Pakistan, China, Turkey and Australia, transport planes from Japan as well as battle planes from Pakistan conducted formation flying one by one.
After that, the Pakistan Navy comprehensive supply ship PNS NASR performed the refueling of two frigates at the same time. The PNS NASR was built at China's Dalian shipyard in 1987. Her name is the Arabic word for "help."
Subsequently, the special unit of Pakistan Navy conducted an anti-piracy demonstration. After a speedboat fired flares to notify the helicopter of the accurate location of a ship which had been hijacked by pirates, a helicopter and speedboat carrying special unit soldiers arrived soon afterwards.
They undertook an air landing, board the ship and soon took hold of the vessel after clashing with the pirates.
The last item of the exercise was surface firing. Two frigates from Pakistan and China's missile destroyer "Harbin" conducted the drill and successfully hit the floating targets in the designated area.
Finaly then, 18 ships from 13 countries passed by the PNS NASR, the primary ship of the naval drill, in queue to receive approval from General Khalid Shamin Wynne, the Pakistani chief of the Joint Chiefs Staff Committee of Pakistan, together with other naval officers and observers from the 36 countries that participated in this five-day-long international naval drill.
Initiated and organized by Pakistan, the "Aman" exercise has been held every other year since 2007. AMAN is the Urdu word for "peace."