Naval Exercises

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Snapshot referencing ADF involvement from Marinelink News

RIMPAC Draws ADF Closer to Amphibious

RIMPAC Draws ADF Closer to Amphibious Future
Posted by Eric Haun Friday, August 01, 2014

More than 800 Australian Navy, Army and Air Force personnel are on their way home after taking part in RIMPAC, the world’s largest naval exercise, which concluded in Hawaii today.

Australia sent the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship HMAS Success and Submarine HMAS Sheean, a rifle company from 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and three Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion aircraft to the exercise to conduct military training with defense forces from 21 other Pacific Rim nations.

At the start of the exercise on June 26, Australian Defense Force officers were appointed to three senior RIMPAC command positions for the first time.

Rear Admiral (RADM) Simon Cullen served as Deputy Commander of the Combined Task Force, Air Commodore Chris Westwood as Combined Forces Air Component Commander and Commodore Peter Leavy as Expeditionary Strike Group Commander.

RADM Cullen said the experience gained by the Australian Defense Force (ADF) in leading the Expeditionary Strike Group would prove invaluable when the nation’s new Canberra Class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) ships are introduced into service later this year.

“Having men and women from the Navy, Army and Air Force command this large, multinational amphibious task group at RIMPAC has greatly expanded the depth of knowledge and experience we have – not only operating in and around large ships, such as the US Navy’s Amphibious Assault Vessels and our incoming LHDs, but also coordinating ground forces and air assets to achieve operational and humanitarian objectives,” RADM Cullen said.

To further enhance Australia’s amphibious capabilities, infantry soldiers from the Australian Army’s 1st Brigade conducted amphibious focused training with soldiers and marines from across the Pacific.

The training covered a range of combat skills and culminated in a major amphibious landing and beach assault serial, launched from the United States Navy’s Amphibious Assault Ship USS Peleliu.

HMAS Sheean and the three RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft participated in multi-national anti-submarine warfare scenarios, while HMAS Success played a major role in the RIMPAC Replenishment Task Force by refueling the fleet of coalition warships and allowing them to stay involved in the exercise missions.

Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral (VADM) David Johnston, said operational capability would be greatly enhanced by the ADF’s participation at RIMPAC.

“We have already seen a real-world scenario this year in the Pacific region which demonstrated that cooperation amongst a large group of partner nations is sometimes crucial to conduct a mission that would be an insurmountable task for an individual nation,” VADM Johnston said.

“The search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 covered an enormous search area which was only possible because a group of nations, all participating in RIMPAC, operated together with a common goal.

“Exercises like this give us an opportunity to refine and enhance our interoperability with each other, so we can work efficiently and effectively together when real situations arise.”

RIMPAC is a biennial military training exercise conducted to strengthen international maritime partnerships, enhance interoperability and improve the readiness of participating forces for a wide range of potential operations.

This year marks the 24th RIMPAC and Australia has participated in every iteration of the exercise since it began in 1971.

 

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Exercises on Projecting Power from the Sea: Part 1 of 3

1. For those who are interested in reading more on RIMPAC, may I humbly recommend reading a couple of my prior posts on 'RIMPAC 2014 and the Shifting Winds of Change in Asia':-

(i) Part 1 of 7,

(ii) Part 2 of 7,

(iii) Part 3 of 7,

(iv) Part 4 of 7,

(v) Part 5 of 7,

(vi) Part 6 of 7, and

(vii) Part 7 of 7.​

2. In particular, about 700 Hawaii-based US Marines, sailors and allied land forces will deploy across three widely dispersed training areas in Hawaii. Members of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, out of US Marine Corps Base Hawaii, will split into three company landing teams and cope with the challenges of self-sustainment. One of the company landing teams will arrive via amphibious assault vehicle. Some of the equipment they’ll be using will be transported by a small-scale prototype of the Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector. The exercise simulates an unstable situation in the Pacific following a natural disaster, said Lt. Col. Charles Berry, head of the Warfighting Lab’s Field Testing Branch. Two of the three teams of 3/3 Marines will be inserted to the area by air and one by amphibious assault vehicle.

3. The experiment follows the April 2014 release of the US Marine Corps’ new 10-year concept of operations, called Expeditionary Force 21, which details future mission types based around rapid crisis response handled by units as small as company landing teams. The US Marines will also be working with land component forces from Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Tonga and so on. Twenty-first century amphibious manoeuvre, underpinned by concepts like Ship-To-Objective Manoeuvre and Sea Basing, are about avoiding direct engagement when lodging a force from the sea to the land objective.

4. RIMPAC is about US coalition management in peacetime, before any pressing need arises. It's about understanding of the likely roles amongst allies and partners when a coalition of warships need to work together to solve a real world problem. There are some videos that provide an insight on naval diplomacy and how navies work together:-

(i) RIMPAC 2014 unfolds in three stages:-

Stage 1: The first scenarios are basic maneuvers – serialized events that ensure all vessels are able to operate with each other successfully.

Stage 2: Weapons firing that include basic gunnery, torpedo firing and missiles. There was also a SINKEX, in which decommissioned ships are fired upon using all types of weapons. On 14 July 2014, KDB Darussalam and KDB Darulaman has proved their fighting capability by firing their respective Exocet MM40 block II surface-to-surface missile systems for the first time at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, 80 nautical miles north of Kaua’i Island. Both missiles from the two ships were successfully launched towards the intended target (i.e. the ex-USS Tuscaloosa, a New Port Class vessel), simultaneously at a distance of approximately 40 nautical miles. The tactical firing was aimed at achieving the full operational capability of the Darussalam class of patrol vessels.

Stage 3: Limited tactical scenario, a.k.a. Forces Integration Training (FIT), in which the action is less scripted. Increasingly, repeat RIMPAC participants are choosing take part in missile firing as part of FIT, to increase the realism of the scenarios. In RIMPAC 2014, JS Kirishima (DDG-174) a Kongō-class AEGIS destroyer fired four SM-2 missiles as part its participation in the exercise.​

(ii) As with most naval serials, 80% to 90% of the effort is in planning; and 10% to 20% in execution, therefore during the harbour phase, crews will participate in exchanges and attend briefings with other Task Unit crews in anticipation of the serials of increasing complexity during the sea phase - this vital planning work will enable the crews from different nations to standardize certain at sea procedures and de-conflict (as the crews are operating under different nationally imposed rules-of-engagement for operations) prior to the sea phase and FIT. The Canadians released a RIMPAC 2012 video that explains the command perspective and the various roles:-

• An Exercise in Command RIMPAC 2012 - YouTube

 

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Exercises on Projecting Power from the Sea: Part 2 of 3

5. This is the fourth time the RSN has participated in the biennial multilateral RIMPAC maritime exercise. In RIMPAC 2008, RSS Steadfast participated and fired a Harpoon Surface-to-Surface Missile (SSM). In RIMPAC 2010, RSS Supreme fired an Aster SAM. In RIMPAC 2012, a RSN frigate commanded a formation of vessels from the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, and the US Navy. And RSS Formidable not only commanded a CTU, it also successfully carried out the simultaneous live-firing of two Harpoon SSMs on 14 Jul 2012. Below are links to a few of the relevant videos:-

RIMPAC 2012

• Exercise RIMPAC 2012 - Ship Shape (Part 1) - YouTube; and
  
  
• Exercise RIMPAC 2012 - Sea Phase (Part 2) - YouTube.

RIMPAC 2014

• RIMPAC 2014 Retrospective - YouTube;
  
  
• Part 1: Friendship & Patrnership now! Exercise RIMPAC 2014 - YouTube; and
  
  
• Part 2: Leadership! Exercise RIMPAC 2014 Part 2 - YouTube

6. RIMPAC is a training opportunity that is more than just simple confidence building; it is a golden opportunity for RSN to test their weapons and systems at the world class Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands. Firing missiles at an instrumented range facility enables the participating navies to have objective data of how their crews performed in the exercise. The data gathered is invaluable for the participating navies.

(i) The Singapore Navy represented by RSS Intrepid, has been selected for the second 'RIMPAC' exercise in a row to assume command of a combined task unit (CTU). During an interview with IHS Jane's onboard the vessel in Pearl Harbor on 5 July, Intrepid 's Executive Officer (XO) Major Au Yong Kok Phai described the nomination as a privilege that reflects the level of trust that the US Navy (USN) organisers have in vessels from the RSN. As commander of a CTU, Intrepid will lead a multinational squadron of warships during the sea phase of the maritime exercise, also conducting briefings and planning elements of the exercise.

(ii) "During the exercises, we will practice communicating across vessels from the multinational forces using the Link 11 Maritime Tactical Data Exchange system", said Maj Au Yong. "It is a datalink that allows our vessels to interface and co-ordinate actions based on a shared image of a target", he added. Challenges facing the CTU commander include co-ordinating responses across navies that may not usually operate using the English language, and addressing differences in operating procedures that will exist between navies. At RIMPAC 2014, RSS Intrepid will fire her Aster 15 missiles during the exercise. Intrepid 's XO Major Au Yong, explained that previous test-firings had taken place in other drills, but added that the waters around Hawaii were deemed to present ideal operational testing situations and provide the RSN an opportunity to deploy and observe its Aster missiles operating at their full capability. Military Expert (ME) 5-2 Christopher Yeo, who oversaw the preparation of the multifunctional radar system for tracking the missile's target: "The first firing of the Aster Missile (in 2008) was very technical as it was a systems test. This time, there was a shift to a more operational firing."

(iii) During RIMPAC 2014, RSS Intrepid and a Task Unit of ships and aircraft hunted for a highly elusive submarine in a series of combined anti-submarine exercises (CASEXs), out in the Pacific Ocean. As the Anti-Submarine Warfare Commander, RSS Intrepid played a game of cat and mouse. To patiently listen, detect and classify the sub-surface contacts with the onboard Active Low Frequency Towed Sonar (ALOFTS) and the S-70B Seahawk to deploy its dipping sonar to search for the invisible target.
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7. Speaking to the media ahead of SAF Day, Dr Ng said the recent Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines underlined the need for a Joint-Multi-Mission Ship (JMMS):

"A larger JMMS would be able to carry more helicopters or have more helicopters operating. When we responded to Typhoon Haiyan...basically, the typhoon was so devastating that comms and communication were knocked out. There was no centralised ability for command and control of the airspace. In that context, a ship like the JMMS would have been very useful."​

8. However, the centre should not simply respond when a crisis hits, he said. Instead, it should build networks – similar to United Nations agencies and voluntary welfare organisations – and pre-position them so that countries know where these resources are. Learning from its previous HADR missions, the SAF realised the value of having larger naval vessels which could act as springboards for extended helicopter operations, said Dr Ng. While the Endurance Class have served the SAF well, a larger JMMS that would have greater capacity and greater range to respond.

 

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Exercises on Projecting Power from the Sea: Part 3 of 3

9. Land Forces coming from the sea must also adapt to the three megatrends identified by David Kilcullen, where he sees the future of warfare against non-state actors as urban, littoral and connected (see his 2012 article on: "The City as a System: Future Conflict and Urban Resilience"). The data suggest that this is the environment in which future conflict will occur. This is not a futuristic prediction, but rather a projection of trends that are evident now, and an assessment of their effects on cities as they exist today. The future is hybrid and irregular conflict combining elements of crime, urban unrest, insurgency, terrorism, and state-sponsored asymmetric warfare — more Mumbai in India, Mogadishu in Somalia, Zamboanga in Philippines, and Tivoli Gardens in Jamaica. There is now a blurring of traditional notions of external and internal defence. These new range of threats now require a greater degree of intelligence and operational integration, that is able to sustain a level of higher alertness and operational responsiveness in moments of peace. Singapore's Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) has the capability to:-

(i) conduct special operations tasks that requires highly specialized equipment, and training beyond the norm for elite conventional forces, including insertion/extraction from submarines, or the conduct of high altitude parachute operations to insert men and boats/equipment in restricted areas undetected. These teams/platoons are small in size and are to be used in operations of short duration at home or abroad. This would include deep reconnaissance, beach reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, hostage rescue (on land and in maritime domains), counter-piracy, non-compliant boarding of ships (to intercept weapons of mass destruction), clearance diving, salvage, sub-rescue, and non-combatant evacuation of Singaporeans abroad; or

(ii) work with conventional forces to conduct integrated missions at up to battalion size for raids. There is a strong focus developing a capability to conduct raids on defended targets instead of forceable entry. This includes the capability to conduct heliborne or amphibious missions at home or in the near abroad with support from other elite units or the high readiness company from the Army Developmental Force (1ADF). 1ADF is an evergreen elite infantry unit that provides the 21st Division with a classified capability that has often been deployed as part of force protection measures in higher risk overseas operations in support of US CENTCOM and 5th Fleet requirements (see 1ADF at the urban operations live-fire range: Ep 1: Right on Target! (Multi-Mission Range Complex) - YouTube). The high readiness company has an annual currency budget (for ammo and training) that exceeds by many times that of normal battalions mainly because it needs to be able to deploy on short notice.​

Further, an attempt has been made at integration to enable the transition of Singapore's disparate national agencies from troubled peace to hot war in a coordinated manner. Beyond enhancing critical infrastructure to withstand attacks, the SAF and Home Team agencies have fine-tuned some operational mechanisms to protect vital public and private installations around Singapore. This is most visible in the creation of 8 and 9 SIR (as POI Battalions under 2PDF), along with increased troop deployments to safeguard Changi International Airport and petro-chemical hub on Jurong island. On 14 August 2014, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen officiated the opening of MULFAC at the Lim Chu Kang Live Firing Area. The Murai Urban Live Firing Facility (MULFAC) provides enhanced training realism and effectiveness up to company level as urban live firing can now be conducted internally and externally with live door breaching charges for a complete force-level urban assault manoeuvre.

10. The Australians, the Americans, the British and Singaporeans all understand that if they are to shape events on land, they need the ability to project power into the connected coastal urban areas (i.e. people using cell-phones for data access in coastal cities) and in the littoral domain surrounding growing ASEAN cities. Richard J. Norton's 2003 Naval War College article, "Feral Cities" has a concept that is useful. A “feral city” is defined by Dr. Norton as:-

"A metropolis with a population of more than a million people in a state the government of which has lost the ability to maintain the rule of law within the city’s boundaries yet remains a functioning actor in the greater international system."​

11. The US Army’s Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) got together with US Army Special Operations Command, the chief of staff’s Strategic Studies Group and the UK’s Ministry of Defence in February to explore these types of urban operations. There are three additional points to note:-

(i) Looking at numbers such as those, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno’s Strategic Studies Group delivered a report to the chief in May claiming that “it is inevitable that at some point the United States Army will be asked to operate in a megacity and currently the Army is ill-prepared to do so.”

(ii) In April 2014, the Australian Army released its 26 page “Future Land Warfare Report,” which came to many of the same conclusions, and voiced the same concerns, as its American partner.

(iii) By way of background, the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) is the meeting of the 10 Defence Ministers from ASEAN, plus 8 other powers. ADMM was inaugurated on 9 May 2006 in Kuala Lumpur; and the 8 other powers are namely, the US, China, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In May 2011, ASEAN approved the establishment of Expert Working Groups (EWGs) comprising of an ASEAN member with an ADMM Plus member as co-chairs on various topics. These EWGs include an EWG on counter-terrorism (being co-chaired by Singapore and Australia). Over the next two years, Singapore and Australia will be helping ASEAN special forces develop exercises to collaboratively counter this threat that is urban, littoral and connected, under the ADMM Plus framework.​

Silent professionals also talk about relationships (including foreign language skills), logistics, ISR and command and control. In the face of trans-national threats the SAF's C4I and intelligence community has had to make significant changes to cope — see this 2009 article on 'Singapore’s Approach to Counterterrorism', including the efforts of the National Security Coordination Secretariat (Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Program) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. Shane Harris writing for Foreign Policy on 29 July 2014, has an article called: "The Social Laboratory: Singapore is testing whether mass surveillance and big data can not only protect national security, but actually engineer a more harmonious society", which explains how Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning works from an American perspective. No ASEAN state is immune from transnational security threats such as terrorism, piracy or natural disasters. Neither is any ASEAN state able to tackle such complex challenges on its own. In August 2014, Assistant Minister for Defence Stuart Robert met with Mr Tan Peng Yam, the Chief Executive of Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency, to discuss closer defence science and technology cooperation between Australia and Singapore. Increased cooperation is in line with the Australian and Singaporean Governments’ desire to enhance the relationship, including through deeper defence science and technology collaboration.

Anticipating Emerging Threats

We live in a dynamic and unpredictable world where governments have been challenged with unforeseen situations such as the September 11 attacks and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The Government of Singapore thus places a strong emphasis on planning for the future. To boost the government’s capability to better anticipate emerging strategic issues, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) Programme Office was established in 2004 by the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS).

To support NSCS, DSTA developed the RAHS system, which is essentially a human augmentation sense-making application. In the system, software modules and tools are categorised under three main capability areas – namely Research and Analysis, Perspective Sharing, and Modelling. The modules and tools augment the analyst’s work in identifying patterns from seemingly disparate data.

For example, the Research and Analysis module provides the analysts with the means to gather information from numerous websites, search through content and make sense of it quickly. The RAHS system was deployed successfully in 2007.

As the effective exploitation of technology is critical to the success of RAHS, the RAHS Experimentation Centre (REC) was also established in 2007. REC, which is managed and staffed by DSTA, supports RAHS by spearheading technological exploration, experimentation and capability development.

To further improve the analysts’ sense-making process, the DSTA team has since developed the second-generation RAHS system, providing additional analytical and modelling tools as well as enhanced usability features. This system was commissioned in 2012, enhancing the situational awareness of analysts.

12. Beyond projecting land power from the sea, naval serials are of increasing complexity are being planned in the region. Two examples serve to illustrate this trend:

(i) Over 1,200 military personnel from the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions have completed collaborative, tactical warfare planning during the first week of the Royal Australian Navy’s largest maritime exercise, KAKADU 2014. From 25 – 29 August 2014, the Harbour Phase of KAKADU 2014 saw regional navies work side by side in Darwin to plan major warfare serials for the next sea phases of the exercise. Exercise Director, Captain Heath Robertson, said the deliberate planning and briefings between ships, aircraft and staff focussed on high-end warfare. On Sunday 31 August the eight participating warships from Australia, Japan, Philippines and Pakistan will sail from Darwin to conduct air defence, gunnery, simulated submarine warfare, flying operations and boardings in the North Australian Exercise Area. Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Sydney and HMAS Stuart will lead the exercise with observers embarked from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, Republic of Korea and Thailand.

(ii) under Australia's and Malaysia's then co-chairmanship of the ADMM-Plus EWG on Maritime Security, Australia hosted the various ADMM-Plus navies, to enhance cooperation in maritime security. See cyberpioneer - ADMM-Plus navies enhance cooperation in maritime security exercise (02 Oct 13).​