Page 76 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

76 SEAPOWER RIMPAC
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
high-end naval warfighting, participants undertaking na- val combat operations in a variety of different scenarios and utilising the range of their capabilities in anti-air, anti- surface and anti-submarine warfare.
LEFT: HMAS Sirius and HMAS Stuart in company with RSS Supreme and USS Rafael Peralta on the way to Exercise RIMPAC 20 in Hawaii
The ground troops have also taken part in the amphibi- ous assault phase of RIMPAC with the US Marines and partner nations’ amphibious forces including marines from South Korea, Thailand and Australian forces.
The exercise is also an opportunity to conduct trials of new technologies or new concepts. These have included a scaled down version of a future ship-to-shore connec- tor called Captive Air Amphibious Transporter (CAAT) being developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), elements of which are planned to be used in the Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector (UHAC) concept.
The objective is to develop a new amphibious connector to transport US Marine Corps vehicles from ship to shore in heavier loads and over shore obstacles. The CAAT has track feet fitted with dense air-impregnated foam blocks which make it buoyant in the water and propel it on land, managing ground pressure as low as 1 PSI, compared to 9.7 PSI for the AAV-7 Amphibious Assault Vehicle.
The track design meant that the CAAT can traverse through mud, sand, and marshland when ashore, going into areas traditional vehicles cannot navigate.
This year’s upcoming RIMPAC will be the 28th in the series since it started as an annual exercise in 1971 before moving to a biennial basis in 1974. Planning is well under- way, beginning in June 2021 and with a conference taking place in December followed by a commanders’ conference in mid-February 2022.
A large, high-profile multi-national exercise like RIM- PAC would undoubtedly have a political element to it. New Zealand was a regular attendee until the 1985 AN- ZUS nuclear ships dispute, resuming its participation only in 2012.
It is expected that this year’s exercise, whose dates have still not been fixed as ADM closed for press, will involve 27 different countries and led by the US Navy’s 3rd Fleet.
International participation at the RIMPAC is predomi- nantly at the sea phase, with nations usually sending naval vessels to take part in the exercise. The ships are divided among sepa- rate task groups during the vari- ous phases of the exercises and carry out various serials as part of the bigger objective of the particu-
lar mission.
RIMPAC also has an air phase,
although this is usually tied to the maritime mission. Aircraft are both land- and sea-based, the latter flying from aircraft carriers or am- phibious assault ships out at sea.
Land-based aircraft include both Tactical Aircraft (TACAIR) as well as maritime patrol aircraft and other support assets such as tankers or air- borne early warning aircraft. Both air and seaborne assets will also undertake live firing exercises at the Pacific Mis- sile Range Facility (PMRF), culminating in a SINKEX that sees a barrage of missiles and gunfire directed at a decom- missioned ship with the ultimate objective being to sink it.
EVOLUTION
RIMPAC 2018’s SINKEX saw the US Army participate in this event for the first time, with the 17th Field Artillery Brigade's M1142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and Boeing AH-64E Apache helicopter gun- ships assigned to the 16th and 25th Combat Aviation Bri- gades, which joined other participants in sinking the for- mer landing ship USS Racine.
“USINDOPACOM SEEKS TO
USE RIMPAC TO ENHANCE INTEROPERABILITY AMONG THE MILITARIES AROUND THE PACIFIC RIM AS A MEANS OF PROMOTING STABILITY IN THE REGION”
DEFENCE