Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships, HMAS Arunta (FFH-151) and HMAS Sirius (O-266), held a Passing Exercise (PASSEX) with the Philippines Navy BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16) at the vicinity of Grande Island in Subic, Zambales Sunday, October 11.
While in PASSEX, the ships conducted maneuvering, visual communications and publication exercises utilizing the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), a non-binding rules-of-the-road agreement between the 21 member countries of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) which offers a safety measure and a means to limit mutual interference, to limit uncertainty and to facilitate communication when naval ships encounter each other in an unplanned manner.
HMAS Arunta and HMAS Sirius arrived at Subic on October 7 for a visit to enhance the relationship and partnership between the PN and RAN. The visit involved several confidence building activities between PN personnel and their visiting counterparts that involved ship’s tour, courtesy calls, and sports events.
The Philippines is just one of the ports of call of the RAN ships as part of their South East Asia deployment.
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Image: Philippine Navy