Photo By Grady Fontana | 170628-N-IX266-001 GLADSTONE, Australia (June 26, 2017)—The heavy-lift vessel Ocean...... read more read more
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GLADSTONE, Australia (June 29, 2017)—Military Sealift Command (MSC) combat logistics force (CLF) and heavy load carrier ships arrived Australia from various locations throughout the U.S. and Asia to deliver and sustain military forces that are participating during exercise Talisman Sabre 2017 (TS17), which starts on July 5 and runs for most of July.
“Talisman Saber 17 is a bilateral exercise, with 33,000 troops from all Service Components of the U.S. and Australia,” said Lt. Cmdr. Carlos Lopez, deputy N4, CLF officer, MSC Far East. “Twenty-one ships make up the combined forces maritime component command, of which eight USS combatants (ships) and five U.S. CLF ships are executing a long string of exercise scenarios offering Naval power projection and sustainment at sea vignettes.”
United States Navy fleet replenishment oilers USNS Rappahannock (T-AO 204), USNS John Ericsson (T-AO 194), and USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO 199), along with dry cargo ships USNS Richard E. Byrd (T-AKE 4) and USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10), are operating out of the Australian ports of Townsville, Gladstone and Brisbane and are tasked with conducting about 75 replenishment-at-sea (RAS) events to eight U.S. Navy ships in support of the exercise.
The HMAS Success (OR 304), a multi-product replenishment oiler serving in the Royal Australian Navy, is slated to conduct roughly 24 RAS events with Australian units.
“This combined exercise offers opportunities for all participants to learn both joint and combined military interoperability,” said Lopez. “It’s an amazing opportunity for military personnel to both observe and apply the art of war in an exercise.”
Months of logistics preparation and execution were critical to successfully kicking off and sustaining the TS17 events.
According to Lopez, in order to meet the warfighters' sustainment requirements, a myriad of logistics partners synchronized preparations for months: Defense Logistics Agency; Navy Exchange; Fleet Logistics Center, Yokosuka; MSC; Commander, Task Force 73; Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet; and Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
MSC ships supporting TS17 are not limited to CLF ships conducting RAS events. The Ocean Jazz, a heavy-lift vessel, delivered 387 pieces of TS17 equipment and containers slated for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC). The Ocean Jazz arrived here June 26 and conducted the offload June 26-28.
The Ocean Jazz is a member of the Maritime Security Program, a listing of American-flag ships that are assets the U.S. military can draw upon during contingencies. Ocean Jazz is a time-chartered commercial container ship that is contracted by MSC for USARPAC to support the Army’s transportation requirements.
Concurrent to TS17, the Ocean Jazz is engaged in a mobility operation for USARPAC called Pacific Pathways 17-2 and 3, where the ship will be conducting follow-on missions.
Pacific Pathways is an innovation that links a series of U.S. Pacific Command-directed Security Cooperation exercises with allied and partner militaries to a single MSC charter vessel on a single voyage plan that delivers U.S. Army equipment to support the various exercises. The Pacific Pathways concept commits a designated task force and their force package equipment to the entire duration of a pathway. TS17 is the first offload for the Ocean Jazz.
“In the next six months, the Ocean Jazz will travel to nine ports in six countries, while supporting six exercises,” said U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Lorena C. Peck, senior mobility officer, USARPAC. “Pacific Pathways is the link between these previously-independent bilateral and multilateral exercises, and the unit is mission-tailored and task-organized for the entire series of exercises.”
Additionally, five MSC reserve-component Sailors also participated in TS17 and assembled an expeditionary port unit (EPU).
EPUs are highly mobile units that can quickly deploy anywhere in the world to establish port operations, even when port infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
“The EPU 102 is here to prepare the way for the ship before its arrival,” said Lt. Cmdr. John B. Ward, a strategic sealift officer and head of training department with MSC’s Expeditionary Port Unit 102 out of New York. “The EPU assists in ship husbandry. I coordinate with the ship’s agent for the tugs, line handling…any support the ship might need.”
MSC operates approximately 115 non-combatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized missions, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners.
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2017 20:38 |
| Story ID: | 239709 |
| Location: | GLADSTONE, AU |
| Web Views: | 706 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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