Photo By Canadian Forces Sgt Ghislain Cotton | 220706-O-QR492-1009-CA PEARL HARBOR (July 06, 2022) U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Michael Boyle,...... read more read more
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Part 3 – RCN optimizes opportunities to work with allies during RIMPAC
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is playing a significant role in 2022’s iteration of the multi-nation Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, hosted by the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet and led by the commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet biennially. RIMPAC 2022, taking place June 29 to Aug. 4, has returned to a full-scale implementation of the world’s largest maritime exercise. It follows a scaled-back RIMPAC 2020 during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In end-June, Canadian Halifax-class frigates HMC Ships Vancouver and Winnipeg both arrived to RIMPAC 2022 with crews of roughly 250 people, a RIMPAC Canadian headcount that does not include the 50 personnel working ashore as part of the Maritime Component.
RIMPAC 2022 is providing both ships the opportunity to train with the same partner nations they will be working next to in partnership when they transition directly to deployment on Ops PROTECTION and NEON immediately following the exercise.
After last week’s transition to the second phase of RIMPAC 2022, the sea phase, Commander (Cdr) Kevin Whiteside, HMCS Vancouver’s commanding officer, provided his thoughts on the exercise’s first two weeks in harbor.
“Everything included in RIMPAC’s shore phase was designed to prepare us for what we do best – operations at sea. We’ve been building relationships and friendships with our maritime partners and establishing lines of communication.
“Once we get out to sea there's no exact starting point for us – we can continue with the basics we discussed alongside or we can expand on those facets to challenge ourselves and our interoperability.”
With a merited plug for his own ship, he added, “Vancouver is a great team made up of 250 awesome Canadians and RIMPAC brings us all together as an even bigger team.”
During RIMPAC’s alongside phase, HMCS Vancouver spent good time exchanging ideas and practices with partner nations. The ship hosted members from Australian supply ship HMAS Supply to discuss the Vancouver’s experience and familiarity with the Close-In Weapons System, a relatively new system for the Australian ship. Divers from the French frigate FS Prairial conducted a hull inspection and familiarization dive with Vancouver’s dive team. These meetings weren’t scripted by the organizers of the event but were were made possible by RIMPAC 2022 Commander Vice Admiral Michael Boyle of the United States (U.S.) Navy, with an aim of bringing like-minded partners and allies together.
Alongside Pearl Harbor, HMCS Winnipeg carried out a number of operations focused training serials with the U.S., Chile, and France to test their communications. Cross-deck evolutions alongside were conducted with their Air Detachment, who hosted partner Maritime Helicopter crews from Australia, Japan, England, and the U.S. These evolutions covered the landing and fuelling capabilities of the ship and aircraft, critical skillsets for Maritime Helicopter crews to master in order to operate safely while at sea.
On July 12, RIMPAC excitement for HMCS Winnipeg continued. The ship, in partnership with Australia, Malaysia and the U.S., fired upon and sunk the decommissioned ex-USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG 60) during the first of two scheduled sinking exercises (SINKEX) to gain proficiency in tactics, targeting and live firing against a surface target at sea. SINKEX vessels are put through a certified cleaning process, including removing all environmentally harmful material including trash, floatable material, mercury, fluorocarbon and petroleum.
End-July and early-August will provide both Canadian ships more opportunities to hone skills with their Indo-Pacific allies and partners during “free play” wartime scenarios before they bid Hawaii a final farewell and depart for their operations.
Look for the final part of this series, Clearance Divers share in salvage tasks with partner nations, coming soon.
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2022 22:47 |
| Story ID: | 425319 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 133 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Canada: A “Capable, Adaptive, Partner” at RIMPAC 2022, by Capt. Jennifer Derenzis and LT Michelle Scott, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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