Exercise PARADISE got underway in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, with little fanfare but with much promise for the participating Royal Australian and Papua New Guinean navies.
The exercise is the primary bilateral maritime engagement for the two navies and enhances their ability to work together in maritime surveillance and security.
One of Australia's Armidale class patrol boats, HMAS Wollongong, is taking part alongside the local Pacific class patrol boats, HMPNG Ships Seeadler and Moresby.
The two navies will practice tactical communications, surveillance, force protection, seamanship, navigation, boarding operations and gunnery.
Wollongong's crew visited Bomana Cemetery before the start of the exercise to pay their respects.
Executive Officer, Lieutenant Mark Doggett, said those who attended were moved by the level of sacrifice and the care taken for the cemetery.
"It was immaculately maintained by the locals and it was both a moving and touching experience to pay our respects," Lieutenant Doggett said.
Bomana Cemetery is the largest war cemetery in the Pacific and contains the graves of 3,779 Australian and Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen who lost their lives during the Second World War.
Wollongong will return to her home port in HMAS Cairns in late August.
(RAN)
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