KEKAHA, Hawaii – Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, participated in Pacific Dragon 2022 (PD22), a recurring biennial multinational air and missile defense exercise between Aug. 5 and Aug. 15 in and around the Hawaiian Islands operating area.
Hosted by U.S. Third Fleet, Pacific Dragon is an air missile defense exercise that began in 2012 with an objective of improving tactical and technical coordination and interoperability to track and report on air and missile defense targets with its participants. This was the sixth iteration of the exercise.
“Pacific Missile Range Facility is the world’s largest, instrumented multi-environment range, and is well suited for supporting high-end, multi-national exercises like Pacific Dragon 2022”, said Capt. Brett A. Stevenson, commanding officer of PMRF. “I could not be more pleased with the way these teams came together and executed this mission. Integration with our allies and partners during this exercise builds confidence in our capabilities and ultimately results in a more effective and cohesive force.”
PD22 focused on deepening relationships and enhancing interoperability between the U.S. and its allies.
“Pacific Dragon’s goal is primarily to verify sharing of sensor information in tactical link between partners,” said Lt. Cmdr. Srdan Samardzic, the exercise director of PD22. “Having our allies act as a warfare commander was one of the objectives for this exercise. This allows us to achieve interchangeability between our partner nations. Australian and Korean ships assumed air and missile defense commander duties.”
Forces from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Navy successfully conducted PD22.
“We set a new standard for the Pacific Dragon series,” said Samardzic. “The exercise met all of our mission objectives, the primary being multilateral interoperability and allowing for ally collaboration at sea through exchange of warfare commander duties and tactful maneuvers.”
PD22 was the first iteration of exercise Pacific Dragon with a live fire intercept of a short range ballistic missile, which was conducted with a Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IA. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) launched a SM-3 to successfully intercept a medium range ballistic missile target that was launched from PMRF on Aug. 9.
“This was a historic year for Pacific Dragon,” said Samardzic. “In previous years, PMRF would launch targets to be tracked by our maritime assets. This is the first year that a live missile was launched to track and intercept a target using SM-3 Block 1A.”
Assets that participated in PD22 included HMAS Sydney (DDG 42), HMAS Supply (A 195), HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331), JS Haguro (DDG 180), ROKS Sejong the Great (DDG 991), USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110), Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41), Commander Destroyer Squadron 31 (DESRON 31), and PMRF.
U.S. Third Fleet encourages coordination, interoperability, and training with our Allies and partners in order to strengthen alliances and partnerships, preserve peace and stability throughout the Indo-Pacific, and maintain our combined readiness to meet any challenges. The ability to work together at sea, especially on aspects such as ballistic missile defense, benefits the collective security interests of all nations.
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2022 15:33 |
| Story ID: | 427787 |
| Location: | KEKAHA, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, PD22 Successfully Completes Live-Fire Intercept at PMRF, by PO1 Samantha Jetzer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
