Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Theron Godbold | 171015-N-FP878-142 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct. 15, 2017) The Arleigh Burke-class...... read more read more
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Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) played an integral role in a live-fire integrated air and missile defense scenario Oct. 15 as part of Formidable Shield 2017 (FS17).
More than 14 ships, 10 aircraft, and approximately 3,300 personnel from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. participated in FS17 on the U.K. Ministry of Defense's Hebrides Range located on the Western Isles of Scotland.
The NSWC PHD team led the preparation, test, and execution of the exercise, which resulted in several milestone achievements, including the first time a dry cargo ship participated in a live-fire setting and the first time a large number of targets were simultaneously engaged in a live Anti-air and Ballistic Missile Defense scenario. In addition, FS17 marked initial demonstration of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) smart defense concept with ships serving as air defense units protecting naval ballistic missile defense units.
“Port Hueneme played a critical role in the success of this multi-national event,” said NSWC PHD Commanding Officer, Capt. Rafael Acevedo. “From subject matter experts embarked on multiple ships afloat, to target generation and manufacture, and event execution, team members from NSWC PHD were there making it happen. This is core to what we do here at NSWC PHD—supporting the Fleet every day and ensuring our integrated combat systems are capable of putting ordnance on target when called upon. This was a tremendous team effort by all involved.”
Over the course of 18 months, NSWC PHD developed test plans, readied the ship and its crew, and participated aboard U.S. Navy and Spanish ships during the exercise. In addition, a team from NSWC PHD’s White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) Detachment installed a launcher and associated infrastructure in Scotland where the home-grown ballistic missile targets were fired.
“The Navy employs White Sands Missile Range Detachment for critical test events due to the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of the targets built by our experienced engineers,” said Cmdr. Tony Holmes, WSMR Detachment Officer in Charge.
In addition to NSWC PHD’s role, collaboration with WSMR’s Operations Directorate resulted in critical analysis for safety zone delineation of the ocean and airspace, debris footprints, and exclusion zones. White Sands Missile Range also provided a refined and validated set of safety displays to incorporate the execution picture, ensuring FS17 leadership remained informed of operations throughout the event. Each piece of equipment was accompanied with operators to augment and increase the capability of the Hebrides Range to host this complex event safely.
“Our partnership with White Sands Missile Range is absolutely a critical component of the continued ability to perform these functions,” said Holmes. “Without these efforts and the flawless execution of the Navy test officer, associated project officers, and engineers onboard the ships, these complex events would not have been possible.”
Formidable Shield is planned to be a recurring, biennial event, and is designed to assure allies, deter adversaries, and demonstrate America’s commitment to collective defense of the NATO alliance. In conjunction with a separate biennial Pacific-based event, the alternating exercises are meant to provide consistent training to develop capability in the fields of anti-air warfare and BMD with allied Navy participation.
NSWC PHD is a field activity of NAVSEA and provides the global United States Navy Fleet with integration, test and evaluation, life-cycle logistics, and in-service engineering for today’s and future warfare systems. Located at Naval Base Ventura County, Calif., NSWC PHD employs more than 2,500 personnel.
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2017 13:05 |
| Story ID: | 252809 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 656 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NSWC PHD participates in successful international live-fire defense exercise, by Nichole Susanka, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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