Spey Dazzles On Exercise In Southeast Asia

The distinctive dazzle paintwork of Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Spey might make her hard to pin down, but she still stood out among her allies when she took part in Exercise Bersama Lima 24.

The Portsmouth-based warship is one of two Royal Navy vessels deployed for an extended period to the Indo-Pacific theatre, and her presence on the most recent manoeuvres, as per a recent Royal navy press statement, was "a demonstration of resolve and unity in Southeast Asia."

Bersama Lima 24 — the name means "Together Five" — is the latest expression of a 50+-year pact between the U.K. and partners Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia under the Five-Power Defence Arrangement to ensure regional security in Southeast Asia

The annual exercise is a key element of the accord. This year's event stretched across 18 days and the centrepiece was an exercise taking in air, sea and land domains. It involved five ships, 38 aircraft (including the first overseas deployment by Australian F-35s) four Ground-Based Air Defence (GBAD) systems, four diving teams and more than 2,000 military personnel.

The naval element saw HMS Spey link up with two Royal Malaysian Navy warships — frigate KD Lekiu and patrol ship KD Terengganu — and two Singaporean vessels, frigate RSS Formidable and OPV RSS Valour.

Held in Malaysian territorial waters, the manoeuvres took in a series of complex warfare scenarios including air defence, escort missions and naval gun-firing guided by specialist ‘spotters’ from 148 Battery Royal Artillery.

The Royal Gurkhas Regiment (1RGR), the Royal Navy’s Diving and Threat Exploitation Group’s Echo Squadron as well as personnel from all three armed forces comprised the U.K. contingent.

Spey’s Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Kris White commented: "HMS Spey has a relatively young ship’s company and I know my warfare officers have made connections during Bersama Lima with their Australian, Malaysian, New Zealand and Singaporean counterparts which will last the rest of their military careers.”

He added: “Exercises like Bersama Lima provide invaluable opportunities to enhance our cooperation, interoperability, and trust with our regional partners. The evolutionary nature of these annual exercises allows us to address shared security challenges in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing security environment with unity, agility, and foresight.”

General Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Mohammad bin Ab Rahman, Chief of Defence Forces Malaysia, was delighted with the outcome of this year’s exercise, telling participants Bersama Lima had demonstrated the five nations’ “shared purpose” and underlined their “readiness to respond as one.”

He continued: “The security challenges we face will continue to shift and we must remain ever vigilant, agile and united to stay ahead of the curve."

• You can read more details on the Royal Navy website