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SINGAPORE – Maritime representatives from 12 Indo-Pacific partner nations, including the U.S. Navy, and personnel from non-governmental and international organizations, participated in a maritime Operations Center (OPCEN) Planning workshop. The workshop was led by the U.S. Navy, Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73 Intelligence Department (N2) during the Shore Phase of the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) 2025 in Singapore, from Aug. 6-8.
The OPCEN planning workshop was designed to test the integrity of intelligence sharing between SEACAT 2025 participant nations. Its objective was to develop comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) collection plans to then implement and utilize during the Sea Phase. The learned skills will assist Sea Phase participants in the hunt for various “vessels of interest” utilizing SeaVision, a comprehensive, web-based maritime situational awareness tool.
“For this year’s training scenarios, [the OPCEN Planning workshop] focused on illicit maritime activities – smuggling, illegal fishing, piracy. These are real concerns for many of our partners in the region,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alex Falten, senior intelligence officer assigned to CTF-73.
During the three-day workshop, the common goal of locating and tracking the simulated illicit vessels gave the 11 participating nations the opportunity to further improve their multilateral information-sharing capabilities in the same room and in real time.
“You create scenarios where not all the information is available, or where priorities shift mid-stream. That forces teams to think critically, adjust their assessments, and make decisions under pressure,” said Falten. “These nations want to share, they want to train together, and they see the value in these kinds of engagements. That tells me we’re on the right path. The more we invest in these relationships now, the more capable we’ll be in any maritime contingency.”
The Shore Phase for SEACAT 2025 acts as the prologue to the Sea Phase, which takes place in the first weeks of September. Intelligence cells will be tasked to apply their recently learned inter-operational information capabilities. From their respective maritime operation centers, each nation will be tasked in the Sea Phase to locate and track contracted ships that are posing as illicit vessels.
SEACAT demonstrates shared commitments to maritime partnership, security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific. At least 12 nations are participating in SEACAT 2025, including Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Singapore and the United States.
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2025 00:32 |
| Story ID: | 548351 |
| Location: | SG |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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