Saudi Arabia RSNF take part in the international Maritime Exercise (IMX)

On March 18th, 2023, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) took part in the 8th iteration of the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) that occurred across several regions including the Arabian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, The Northern Arabic Sea, The Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia partnered with over 50 regional partners and international organizations for the IMX. The IMX is one of the largest and most important naval exercises internationally, and within the region with over 7,000 personnel taking part. It highlighted a number of maritime scenarios to orchestrate maritime military concepts and strengthen naval security systems. This included deploying 30 unmanned artificial intelligence systems, unmanned systems, and 35 ships for the implementation.

The exercise focused on combined command and control, maritime security, mine countermeasures, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration, and global health. It featured multiple joint naval drills, primarily; operations to combat naval mines with guided systems, maritime search and rescue activities, maritime field medical evacuations, exchange expertise in operating modern unmanned boats, and training VBSS teams.

The RSNF played an essential role in the exercise with the removal units of the Special Maritime Security Forces during the exercise and led the mine warfare group exercises that were held in Bahrain and Jordan.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia values the cooperation of regional partners and organizations to strengthen maritime security.