Oman holds joint military exercise with Britain

Energy Tuesday 12/March/2019 15:06 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman holds joint military exercise with Britain

Muscat: Units of the Royal Army of Oman carried out Oman-British exercise 'Oman Khanjar' with the support of the Royal Air Force of Oman and with participation units of British Royal Armed Forces.

The training course was held in the training areas the Wusta Governorate in the presence of Gen Mattar bin Salim Al Balushi, Commander of the Royal Army of Oman (RAO), a number of senior commanders and British Royal Forces and senior officers of the Royal Army of Oman. The forces participating in the exercise carried out the plans designed for the training to achieve the objectives of the training envisaged from its activities, which showed participants have a high level of performance and high morale.

The events of the exercise reflected the characteristics of the members of the Royal Army of Oman in competence and ability to function at the level of training, high qualification and ability to harmonise in performing common tasks. Al Balushi praised the performance of the forces participating in the exercise, with the representation by units of the two nations, expressing his satisfaction with the high level of the Omani soldier and his ability to work side by side with his counterparts.

He also reiterated that coordination at various levels reached high rates in accordance with the standards of military efficiency and operational readiness.

And about the joint exercise, Colonel Hamid bin Ahmed Sakroon, director of training at RAO, said, “Oman Khanjar is an important source of performance assessment and capability and shows ways to improve them through joint joint exercises.”

For his part, Colonel Mansour bin Ali Al Amri, commander of the desert battalion, said, “The exercise is a joint field exercise between a number of units of the Royal Army of Oman with air support from the Royal Air Force of Oman and units from the Army Ground Forces.

He added, “The event was conducted with the utmost proficiency by all the joint units of the Omani side and the British side."
Colonel Dickie Tyler, the British director of exercise said, “The exercise and operations scenario contributed to the implementation of the battle stages with the Omani forces and achieved intermingling of participating forces.”

He also expressed his hope to continue to exchange military expertise with the Sultan's armed forces, describing the historic Omani-British relations as "they were and remains firm".

Lt. Col. Howard, commander of the British Royal Armored Corps, went on to say, “The exercise was very useful to our participating forces as military operation is very convenient and we have been able to carry out a variety of successful training in the exercise scenario."