Rimba Base, 1st to 4th Feb 2016 – Base Defense Squadron (BDS) of Royal Brunei Air Force (RBAirF) has successfully finished their exercise with the 9 Air Force Officer Cadets of Intake 14 from Officer Cadet School (OCS). ‘Ex Perisai Pertahanan’ that was held on 1st – 4th February at Rimba Base was organized by the squadron with the support of the squadron second in command and training officer; Capt (U) Ak Md Shahri bin Pg Hj Shamsudin and Lt (U) Pg Hafiz Bin Pg Sazali. The aim of the exercise was to expose the Officer Cadets to the basic roles and responsibilities of the BDS.
The four days exercise was a base defence operation that goes through various phases which includes, Vehicle Check Point (VCP), Observation Posts (OP), Patrols, Cordon and Search, and Anti-Riot. All of the Officer Cadets were attached with the B Troop. Each of them were had different appointments and rotated regularly. All Officer Cadets had the opportunity to become Troop Commander, Troop Sergeant, Section Commanders and the Section Commander 2IC. The Officer Cadets were asked to apply the practicality of the theories that they were taught over the week during the exercise.
On 1st February they were given a standby phase where they had to prepare and set up defense perimeters around the BDS building. The standby phase went on for two days and within those two days the building was surrounded with concertina wires stand to points and bunkers. This involved using up hundreds of sandbags to build the stand to points and Bunkers, Sentries and setting up an Observation Post to look out for enemies.
On Wednesday, the 3rd February 2016, the Commander Operations Group of RBAirF, Col (U) Md Sharif bin DP Hj Ibrahim and the Commanding Officer of No 2 Wing, Maj (U) Peter bin Ulat, visited the Officer Cadets during their exercise. They witnessed the VCP exercise where the Officer Cadets had to stop a suspected vehicle from entering the Air Base and arrest the suspected person. The Officer Cadets had the opportunity to experience real time operations and handle real troops under them.
It was a challenging exercise for the Officer Cadets as it tested their mentality as well as physical fitness. Most of the tasks were given unexpectedly; this is when their leadership came into place by delegating tasks to their men and applying their knowledge of base defence theory. In general, Ex Perisai Pangkalan has been a success as the squadron accomplished their objective, which is to help these 9 Officer Cadets to understand the squadron’s roles and responsibilities in order to defend the Rimba Air Force Base. It is hoped that this exercise will be an eye opener for other units to come up with such exercise to help these future RBAirF officers understand the unit better.
