Photo By Elisha Smith | 220726-N-MR124-1028 PACIFIC OCEAN (July 26, 2022) Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force...... read more read more
Subscribe
Three Military Sealift Command combat logistic fleet (CLF) ships are supporting the world’s largest, biennial international maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, by providing logistical support to the surface ships participating in the exercise in Hawaii.
Fleet replenishment oilers USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187), USNS Pecos (T-AO 197), and dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) have delivered diesel ship fuel and JP-5 aviation fuel to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, and foreign navies’ surface and aviation forces during the exercise’s underway periods in July.
According to the Military Sealift Command Pacific Logistics and Operations departments, MSC ships have delivered over 16 million gallons of diesel ship fuel, more than 3 million gallons of JP5 aviation fuel and 337 pallets of food and supplies during 91 resupply evolutions at sea.
While moving cargo is a day’s work on an MSC CLF ship, the RIMPAC operations tempo is unlike a regular day, where a ship may service one or two ships. During RIMPAC, the operations tempo could see the CLF ships service up to ten ships a day, with underway replenishments (UNREPS) being conducted on both sides of the ship with U.S. Navy and foreign navy ships.
To prepare for RIMPAC’s challenging OPTEMPO, the ships conducted training and participated in briefs to ensure everyone was operating with the same safety standards for both the ships’ crews and for the environment.
“There have been a large number of meetings while the ships are in port,” explained Capt. Macklin Sandison, Washington Chambers’ civil service master. “These meetings were a way for the RIMPAC planners to coordinate all of us, and to ensure that everyone is operating safely together. Although we should all have NATO standard equipment and standard operating guidelines, every navy does things a little bit differently, and these discussions helped us prepare for those differences.”
RIMPAC 2022 featured a new aspect of taking fuel stores for the MSC CLF ships; consolidated cargo operations or CONSOLs with MSC chartered tanker ships MT Maersk Peary and SLNC Goodwill.
For Washington Chambers, who prior to RIMPAC, had been operating in the Navy’s 5th Fleet area of operations in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean, RIMPAC’s operating tempo was nothing new to them, but taking fuel from a CLF ship for delivery, was.
“RIMPAC’s operation tempo is not unlike a C5F deployment, with the ship giving out most of its fuel and supplies and then having to return to port to load more dry stores and provisions for the customer ships,” said Sandison. “The main difference is that we are receiving all of our cargo fuel via CONSOL with either commercial contract tankers or the Kaiser Class oilers that are also participating in RIMPAC. The main benefit is that it gives us more options for receiving fuel. Think of it like having more gas stations to go to on a road trip. It’s always nice to have options in case the line is too long, or one of the pumps is broken”
Since RIMPAC is a multi-national exercise, one of its unique aspects is the interaction between participating countries and the U.S. Navy. This is true for MSC ships as well, who provided logistics services to foreign navy ships during the exercise. Working with crews whose first language is not English, can prove challenging. For this reason, representatives from several foreign navies were embarked on the CLF ships to provide translation and to address issues unique to different countries.
“Working with crews who do not speak English as a first language is always challenging. There is more room for a slight miscommunication or deviation from routine operations to cause a major safety incident,” said Sandison. “We mitigate this with the many meetings between ship staff and exercise coordinators while in port and a cautious and well risk assessed approach to underway operations.”
The MSC logistics piece of RIMPAC was not limited to the ships at sea. Working directly with Commander Third Fleet and Commander Task Force 173, MSCPAC Combat Logistic Office (CLO) coordinated logistics material loads for USS and foreign Navy ships to MSC ships, for transfer at sea.
Countries participating include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States. Countries not represented by ships at the exercise will be represented by ground elements, along with participation either in the various combined command and staff groups or as observers.
Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, three submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2022 14:07 |
| Story ID: | 426323 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 270 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, MSC Ships Provide Logistics Support During RIMPAC 2022, by Sarah Cannon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
