Last month, naval vessels from over 20 countries were deployed for the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2018), the world’s largest naval exercise, intended to bolster international maritime partnerships, enhance interoperability and improve the readiness of participating forces for a wide range of potential operations.
RIMPAC 2018 is a major United States Pacific Fleet biennial combined exercise, held from 27 June to 2 August 2018 in Hawaii and off the coast of California, including 47 surface ships, five submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel from 25 countries:
Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the UK, the US and Vietnam.
RIMPAC 2018 was the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971 and this year’s theme was ‘Capable, Adaptive, Partners’.
Navies personnel exercised across a broad spectrum of scenarios from humanitarian assistance and disaster response to maritime security operations, sea control and complex war fighting.
Participating personnel and assets conducted gunnery, missile, anti-submarine, and air-defence exercises, as well as maritime interdiction and vessel boardings, explosive ordnance disposal, diving and salvage operations, mine clearance operations and an amphibious landing.
