Rim of the Pacific

The air element of RIMPAC is a large one, with nearly 100 ‘fast jet’ combat aircraft involved as well as numerous maritime patrol, AEW&C, air-to-air refuelling, and transport aircraft, and land and ship-based helicopters. For the first time this year, an Australian was appointed as the Combined Forces Air Component Commander (CFACC) for the exercise. TheRAAF’s Commander of the Williamtown-based Surveillance and Response Group (SRG), AIRCDRE Chris Westwood, was based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam near Honolulu.

“One of my agendas is to get the message out that, while this is the world’s largest maritime exercise, there is a substantial airpower element to it,” AIRCDRE Westwood told Australian Aviation. “We raised about 250 sorties a day and a total of about 4,000 sorties for the duration of the exercise, so by any comparison the air component is a substantial part of the exercise, and in its own right is a substantial exercise. ” The ‘fast air’ elements included 40 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers from the carrier air group aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, Hawaii-based F-22 Raptors, F-15E Strike Eagles from Alaska, and F‑16C/Ds from Texas. TheUSMC also had a squadron of F/A-18C/Ds, and Canada deployed six CF-18 Hornets, and these were supported by E-2 Hawkeye and E-3 AWACS AEW&C aircraft and KC-135 tankers. Also participating were US Navy P-8A Poseidons, USAF B-52Hs, P-3C Orions from the US, South Korea and Japan, CP-140 Auroras from Canada, a P-3K2 Orion from New Zealand, and three AP-3Cs from Australia.

The large fleet of helicopters included MH-60R/S Seahawks, AH-1W Super Cobras, M/CH-53E Super Stallions, UH-1Y Venoms, MV-22 Ospreys, AH-64D Apaches, OH-58D Kiowas, M/UH-60 Black Hawks, AS555 Fennecs, AS565 Panthers, Indian Cheetaks (Alouette), Chinese Z-8s (Super Frelon) and Z-9s (Dauphin), New Zealand SH-2G Seasprites, and a Royal Australian Navy MRH 90 Taipan.

Part of the CFACC’s role isto facilitate the airspace above and around the exercise so as to deconflict with civil traffic as well as to coordinate the employment of the daily air tasking order (ATO) for defensive counter air (DCA), offensive counter air (OCA) and strike mission sets for the fast jets, and for their support aircraft.

“One of the great successes of RIMPAC 14 has been the constructions of the airspace,” said AIRCDRE Westwood. “There’s been a team from the US Navy’s 3rd fleet in San Diego working really closely with the FAA and the 613th Air and Space Operations Squadron here in Hickam, and they’ve constructed an airspace which enables operations to occur north and south of the islands with minimal disruption to commercial aviation operations. ” “We facilitate all of the airspace, so that also includes that used by the helicopters on ships,” he added. “Although we don’t control the missions the helicopters fly, we do facilitate their routing through the activity by working very closely with the maritime component to schedule and deconflict and provide airspace to them. ” RIMPAC isn’t conducted as a practice ‘war’ so to speak, rather it is based around a number of structured scenarios that range from humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR), to anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW) missions, to a live fire ‘sinkex’ where two decommissioned US Navy vessels were sunk by live surface-to-surface missiles and air-launched ordnance.

“The main purpose of the exercise is to bring the 22 participating nations together in a series of activities,” explained AIRCDRE Westwood. “The activities are fairly structured for two of the three at-sea phases, the third phase being a free-flow phase, but even then there’s ascenario that sits over the top that engages all players. There’s a lot of moving parts, and the orchestration of the moving parts is really what occupies the planners. ” “The scenario is quite generic,” he added. “Because there’s 22 nations involved, the scenario overlays the exercise from the start to stop, but because of the serialised nature of the first two phases at sea, the serialised program fits into the scenario rather than the scenario driving the platform. So we stepped through a distinctive crawl-walk-run program, and the main aim of that program is to integrate 22 nations from vastly different backgrounds. ” The ADF had a substantial footprint, particularly in the command and control elements of RIMPAC 14. “The most visible is the three P-3s which have been operating in the ASW and maritime patrol roles,” said AIRCDRE Westwood. “But we also have the CFACC role – it’s the first time we’ve had a CFACC for this exercise, and we’ve got about 50 operators and technicians working in the AOC operating alongside the 613th CAOC at Hickam AFB. The AOC has about 200 people all up – 100 of them are US Navy and USAF, and there about 50 Canadians and 50 Australians.

“The Australians in the CAOC are drawn from throughout Air Force,” he added. “A lot are from SRG, but normally when you pull an AOC together you need to pull people out of all disciplines. Because of the maritime nature of RIMPAC, we have a fair few out of 92WG, there are air battle managers (ABMs) out of 41 and 42WGs, and technical staff from Headquarters Air Command. What’s of most interest to me is, for the first time we put a number of ABMs out of 41WG into the CAOC, and they’ve been operating with their US and

The AOC has about 200 people all up – 100 of them are US Navy and USAF, and there about 50 Canadians and 50 Australians.

Canadian counterparts providing our ground-based regional operations capability, doing a lot of management of large package type operations involving F-22s, F-15s and F-16s. ” The participating elements from the ADF comprised a total of about 950 personnel from all three services, and apart from the AP-3Cs and CAOC components, also included the Collins class submarine HMAS Sheean and the replenishment vessel HMAS Success, the Maritime Clearance Diving Task Group with diving elements, and Army personnel from the 4th Combat Landing Team.

AIRCDRE Westwood’s days typically started early and the bulk of the planning and briefings were conducted in the mornings. “My typical day started at 0515,” he said. “My first meeting is at 0700 which is a briefing of the overnight activities and the preparation of the senior leadership group and commanders update brief. I then have my update brief at 0800, and at 0845 I depart Hickam to the Pacific warfighting facility on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor wherethe three-star admiral running the exercise, VADM Floyd, pulls all the senior leadership group in for a daily commanders’ update brief. After this, I’ll head back to Hickam where I’ll be briefed at around 1100 on tomorrow’s activities, and that’s where I approve the development of the air activities for the next day. ”

AIRCDRE Westwood’s afternoons were usually spent hosting visits, doing media interviews, or going out and visiting elements of the air component. “I make a point that I’m the air component commander and not just the CAOC commander,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get out to the squadrons and to spend some time on the carrier, shaking as many hands as possible, seeing as many aeroplanes and meeting as many personnel as possible. After this, from about 1600 I do a wrap-up brief of the day and then, from 1800 on, there’s normally what we call a ‘fire-side chat’ with the senior leadership group where we have an end-of-day wrap-up. ” In closing, AIRCDRE Westwood explained his goals and priorities for the exercise. “My priorities for the air component, first and foremost was to support the maritime component as they went through their paces,” he said. “Secondly, for the air elements to get the maximum training value possible out of every mission that we fly, for all of our command and control staff who are working in the AOC, and for all the support staff throughout the air component. But I absolutely require all of that to be conducted safely, and with full respect to the environment.

“At the end of the exercise we’ve done a quick check on that, and every unit that’s been flying here has given us a tick that they’ve achieved every training objective they came here to achieve,” he added. “It’s been a remarkably safe exercise from an air point of view, we’ve had no incidents of note and the airspace has been really well constructed. And environmentally Hawaii is a stunning place and these exercises by their nature are going to challenge the environmental management, but’s it’s just been a spectacular success. There’s been no significant infringements – I’m unaware of even a noise complaint. ”