Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Veloicaza | SINGAPORE - Scott Silk, deputy director of operations for the Singapore Area...... read more read more
The Singapore Area Coordinator (SAC), participated in Exercise Citadel Pacific 2017 along with other Navy Installations throughout the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility, including Navy Region Japan, Joint Region Marianas, and Navy Region Hawaii, July 31 to Aug. 4, 2017.
The purpose of the annual exercise is to enhance the training, readiness and capability of Navy security forces to respond to threats to Navy installations and units.
According to Morgan Jones, Director of Operations for SAC, the overall focus for this year’s exercise is to provide a comprehensive exercise for its anti-terrorism program and local security force program.
“The goal every year is to provide an environment to drill the security force on more complex and involved scenarios that require a response to incidents ranging from active shooter to explosions to suspicious packages,” Jones said. “While we drill and train throughout the year on response to the most frequent types of incidents, we use this Commander, Naval Installations Command and Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet driven exercise window to concentrate on the most serious scenarios.”
For SAC, the weeklong events had its Installations Auxiliary Police Force (IAPF) and Singapore Armed Forces active on drills such as active shooter and building evacuation procedures as a result of a discovered improvised explosive device at its quarterdeck. Numerous entry control point unauthorized penetration attempts and surveillance drills were conducted and handled quite successfully by the IAPF and SAF. Both organizations provide security for SAC and its assets throughout Singapore. In highlighting the IAPF’s efforts, Jones lauded their professionalism during the training.
“I would offer there has been a significant amount of experiential learning with many tenants and personnel regarding responses to these drills,” Jones said. “In addition, the IAPF’s comprehensive training has paid off and is evident in the initial response to the high visibility drills we have been conducting as part of this year’s exercise. This week was a tremendous opportunity to take part in and practice for these unlikely, but serious incidents.”
However, the exercise did uncover some manpower issues that were evident during the execution of the training.
“The main challenge has been the perennial lack of manpower to truly execute the drills and still field an experienced assessment team while maintaining safety oversight for the more complex evolutions,” Anthony Jackson, the SAC Anti-Terrorism Officer. “We are taking that as a lesson learned this year and are already in discussions regarding growing an assessment team from tenant command membership.”
Meanwhile, as this year’s exercise wraps up, the SAC team will take its lessons learned and prepare more cohesive training scenarios for next year’s events.
“The most significant take-away from this week is that with a constant rotational work force, it is imperative that refresher training in response to an active shooter and building evacuation be conducted on a regular basis,” Jones said. “The drills and exercises we conduct this week and throughout the year are an effort to maintain a degree of advantage over the adversary.”
Exercise Citadel Pacific 2017 is a routine exercise and is not being conducted in response to a specific threat against any particular installation. The IAPF, the SAC N3 Security, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Singapore Armed Forces work together diligently to provide the best force protection posture possible with the available resources. Realistic training enhances security awareness among involved Navy personnel, family members, veterans, retirees, and local populations.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.14.2017 23:12 |
| Story ID: | 244876 |
| Location: | SG |
| Web Views: | 207 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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