Iraqi Coastal Defence Force Ready to Patrol Iraqi Waters thanks to Royal Australian Navy
(Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued Oct. 1, 2004)
The Royal Australian Navy today completed the initial training of the new Iraqi Coastal Defence Force (ICDF) which will now take over responsibility for policing its coastline, waterways and vital oil terminals situated in the Northern Arabian Gulf.
The formal hand-over at an official graduation ceremony at Umm Qasr in southern Iraq today marked the end of a six-month training program for the ICDF.
Ten Royal Australian Navy personnel and one member of the Australian Army conducted the training.
The commander of the ADF contingent in the Middle East, Brigadier Peter Hutchinson, said “The hand-over marked a major step on the road to Iraq’s successful rehabilitation and reconstruction.
“The efforts of the Australian training team have been outstanding, and the fact that the new ICDF can now take full responsibility for protecting its territorial waterways is due in no small part to the efforts of this training team.
“Working together with other coalition partners including the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands, the Australian sailors played a key role in building the ICDF.
“This small group of sailors were responsible for the development of an effective training program which included seamanship, engineering drills, damage control, fire-fighting and search and rescue.
Senior Australian Defence Force, Coalition and Iraqi military dignitaries attended the graduation ceremony marking the end of the training program and hand-over of operational responsibilities to the ICDF concluding with a sail past of the new ICDF patrol boat fleet.
Training team personnel, who have been embedded with Coalition military assistance training team since February 2004, will now be returning to Australia having successfully completed their mission.
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