The United Kingdom Special Forces are taking lead in a joint British-Malay training exercise which is intended to provide a wealth of knowledge to the recently-commissioned Royal Malaysian Air Force Special Forces unit.
Who are the Pasukan Khas Udara?
The Pasukan Khas Udara are the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s Special Forces unit, responsible for carrying out high-value target protection, ground forward air controller, combat search and rescue and rescuing downed aircrew assignments.
The unit is one of two special forces units in Malaysia, alongside their army counterparts, Grup Gerak Khas.
In total, the Malaysian special forces units currently comprise of roughly 65 members, and draw their operators from their respective branches.
What is Exercise Pacific Unity?
The exercise is a nine week long programme being ran by members of the British special forces, alongside specialist reconnaissance troops from the Royal Marines.
The programme is designed to take the new Malaysian operatives from new recruits to fully qualified and capable special forces soldiers.
Over the duration of the exercise, troops will progress through different modules each weekend, expanding on their training and developing into more lengthy and sophisticated exercises.
The exercise is one of many that the British Armed Forces has conducted with foreign troops, and the Chief of Defence Staff says he is “always willing” to consider multi-national operations.