Watan Exercise to showcase readiness of security agencies

Under the patronage of HE the Minister of Interior and Commander of Lekhwiya Force Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Watan Exercise 2023 will be held from November 6-8, showcasing the readiness of the security bodies to secure mega events in Qatar.
Military and civilian agencies in the country will be part of the exercise, and the details were announced Wednesday at a press conference at Lekhwiya headquarters at Duhail.
Ministry of Interior's public relations director and Watan Exercise 2023 Media Cell commander Brig Abdullah Khalifa al-Muftah, Lekhwiya Force assistant commander for logistics and administration and Watan Exercise 2023 commander Lt Col Mubarak Sherida al-Kaabi and Control, Command and Scenario Preparations Cell commander Maj Mohamed Ahmed Jaber Abdullah were present.
The Watan Exercise 2023 includes office and field exercises that address events, situations and scenarios based on all types of potential risks and challenges after study and selection by specialists and experts.
Brig al-Muftah said the exercise aims to raise and test readiness in normal and emergency situations during mega sporting events and activities.
“This is to measure the speed of response to various events and activate the mechanism of command, control, and joint co-operation to achieve integration of roles and implement the required tasks as quickly as possible. Also, the aim is to enhance close co-operation, exchanging of experiences and identifying the best procedures among the participating parties,” he said.
Brig al-Muftah pointed out that the previous Watan exercises yielded many positive results and lessons that were used within the security and public safety plans in co-ordination with civil authorities. “These contributed to the success of securing and hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The previous editions received local, regional and international media attention,” he said.
Lt Col al-Kaabi said the current edition of Watan exercise has the participation of all military authorities and more than 30 institutions, authorities and government agencies, in addition to the private security and service agencies.
“The exercise aims to measure the plans, procedures, and readiness of the agencies and to raise the level of joint work. It seeks to achieve other goals, including measuring the speed of response of all agencies, activating the joint leadership system in emergency events, strengthening the communication system between all agencies, and experiencing the normal tasks and emergency situations of the participating entities. In addition, the exercise aims to test all systems to work in more than one event at the same time, strengthen the logistical work mechanism in emergency events and joint work, and to stand on proactive measures to reduce risks,” he said.
Lt Col al-Kaabi pointed out that the exercise seeks to achieve a number of outcomes, the most prominent of which are identifying and strengthening the positives and improving procedures and communication mechanisms between all parties concerned.
Maj Abdullah said the general timeline of the exercise has six stages including determining the locations, coming up with a media plan, command approval of the scenarios, preparing the instruction booklet and operations order, activating the evaluation unit, preparing the exercise sites, circulating the instruction booklet and operations order, holding office exercises and implementing the field exercise, coming up with the outcomes of the exercise, presenting the final summary and submitting the results to the leadership.
The office exercises that precede the field exercise will be held from October 30 to November 1. The office exercises simulate emergencies and incidents, scenarios for events and malfunctions in systems and programmes.
The exercise sites include vital military and service facilities, land, sea and airports and tourism sites, in addition to operating rooms, residential areas and main roads, Maj Abdullah added.