Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) has recently completed a demanding multi-threat exercise at its Headquarters in Bahrain.

The week long exercise put CMF’s Headquarters staff as well as its associated Task Force Commanders through a series of challenging scenarios designed to fully test the organisation’s command and control and emergency response functions.

The exercise commenced when CMF’s crisis response cell convened to deal with a stricken merchantman which had suffered an unknown explosion.  Added pressure was subsequently injected with realistic weather and political constraints.  Like all exercises, once one hurdle had been overcome, another was placed in the way, in this case a grounding.  Following on from that was a looming environmental disaster, and growing asymmetric terrorist threat.

By the end of the week the team at CMF not only had a better appreciation of its crisis capabilities but also better relations with a range of outside agencies.  Captain Bruce Legge, CMF’s Director of Operations stated:  “In the military environment we spend our time training for a variety of events we hope will never happen; that said the harder you train the easier your job becomes.  The team did very well and I feel confident that if any of these events were to happen for real we will be better prepared.”