SL Navy divers training with US navy in Guam

A twenty member Sri Lanka Navy diving squad is presently undergoing diving training with the US Navy sailors from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 5 in Guam (a US island territory in the Western Pacific). 

The Sri Lanka Navy said that the Navy divers are undergoing training with the US divers to acquire skills and knowledge required to remove unexploded underwater ordnances left by the LTTE in tanks and lagoons in the North and East. 

“The combined military to military Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) training commenced on April 7. The ten day training programme covers a range of theoretical as well as practical applications related to diving operations. The training exposure will help to further build upon the relations and strengthen the diving capabilities.”

During a joint diving exercise conducted as a part of the training on 13th April, US Navy sailors from the EODMU 5, and the Sri Lanka Navy divers dove to the Tokai Maru, a sunken World War II Japanese freighter as a part of a coordinated effort by the Commander, Task Force 75, the primary expeditionary task force responsible for the planning and execution of coastal riverine operations, explosive ordnance disposal, diving engineering and construction, and underwater construction in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, it added.