The Singapore and United States (US) navies launched their joint maritime warfare exercise on Monday.

The 12-day drill, codenamed Carat 2013, will involve 1,400 personnel, eight ships, two submarines, as well as warplanes and helicopters from the Singapore Armed Forces and the US Navy. Carat 2013, which is short for "Cooperation afloat readiness and training", is the 19th such exercise in the annual series.

It will also be the first time that RSN's Archer-class submarine RSS Archer and the US Navy's Littoral Combat Ship USS Freedom will be taking part in the series of sea drills.

The opening ceremony, held on Monday morning at Changi Naval Base, was jointly officiated by the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) Fleet Commander, Rear-Admiral Timothy Lo, and the US Navy Commander Logistics Group Western Pacific, Rear-Admiral Thomas F. Carney.

Rear-Admiral Ng said the joint exercise has come a long way and demonstrates the commitment of both navies "to push the boundaries of exercise scope and complexity".

The Defence Ministry said that this year's drill will focus on sharpening conventional maritime warfare capabilities such as anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities, as well as maritime air operations.