Courtesy Photo | 180703-O-N0842-4005 Pearl Harbor (July 3, 2018)Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)...... read more read more
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Story by Flight Lieutenant Stephanie Anderson, Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) 11 Squadron (11SQN) says ‘Aloha!’ for the first time after deploying a P-8A Poseidon aircraft to Hawaii, July 3.
The P-8A arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise and will be operating from Hickam Air Force Base and U.S. Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The 11SQN detachment has approximately 75 personnel, encompassing aircrew, maintenance, operations, logistics, administration and ground crew to support the P-8A.
Squadron Leader Brian Brown, detachment commander, said it was exciting for the squadron to be deployed to Hawaii with one of the RAAF's newest aircraft.
“11 Squadron is integrating with the United States Navy by using combined maintenance and operations facilities,” he said. “We’ll be conducting operational test and evaluation on the P-8A’s weapons system by firing a Harpoon missile and torpedoes for the first time in an exercise environment, which will be the highlight of the exercise for us.”
Participating in RIMPAC is a key milestone for the P-8A to reach its Final Operating Capability (FOC).
“The P-8A has hit the ground running, being deployed on operations and exercises since being accepted into service,” Brown said. “RIMPAC will provide us with a great opportunity to really consolidate our weapons processes, working in a large-scale multilateral environment."
International engagement and interoperability plays a large part of the 11SQN Detachment’s RIMPAC mission.
“Our P-8A will be working with aircraft and ships from the 25 partner nations on RIMPAC,” Brown said. “This exercise will be professionally fulfilling for our personnel, particularly in being able to see how our partner nations operate and how we operate with them.”
The P-8A from 11SQN will be operating with P-3s from Canada, Japan and New Zealand, P-8s from the United States Navy and India, along with rotary wing aircraft, submarines and surface ships.
Twenty-five nations, 46 ships, five submarines, about 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 27 to Aug. 2 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security of the world’s oceans.
For RIMPAC 2018, the Australian Defence Force has committed the RAAF P-8A, air battle managers, and Combined Air Operations Centre augmentees; the Royal Australian Navy guided-missile frigate HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05), frigate HMAS Toowoomba (FFH 156), landing helicopter dock ship HMAS Adelaide (L01), multi-product replenishment oiler HMAS Success (OR 304) and submarine HMAS Rankin (SSG 78); and the Australian Army 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2018 23:30 |
| Story ID: | 283484 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 552 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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