The biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise starts tomorrow and will be the most massive ever.

I heard about the massive 27 nation naval exercise and searched military headlines revealing these:

Croatia’s navy set to receive new patrol vessels from 2017, as part of naval modernisation plan

Japan, US, South Korea conduct first joint missile-tracking exercise

Paraguay, Peru formalise defence co-operation

USSOCOM selects Small Glide Munition for ‘immediate combat requirement’

Russia mulls establishing Pacific Fleet base in Kurils, says TASS

Australian deployments to ramp up for U.S. Navy, Marines
U.S. boosts presence in the South Pacific region.

HONOLULU — The U.S. Navy says 27 nations will participate in the world’s largest maritime exercises in coming weeks.

This is an all-time high for the Rim of the Pacific exercises, which date to 1971. The drills are held every two years.

The Navy’s 3rd Fleet will host the exercises in and around Hawaii and Southern California for five weeks beginning June 30. The exercises will feature 45 ships, five submarines and more than 200 aircraft. More than 25,000 personnel will participate.

Brazil, Denmark, Germany and Italy are joining for the first time. China is sending ships to participate for the second time this year.

A Canadian admiral will serve as deputy commander and a Japanese admiral will be vice commander.

A recent report from Europe:
http://navaltoday.com/2016/06/29/germany-poland-initiate-submarine-cooperation/

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German and Polish Navy chiefs have set up a joint “Submarine Operating Authority” bringing the two countries’ navies closer together and transcending traditional strategic reservations often linked to submarine missions.

As the agreement outlines, the newly set up ‘task group’ will be part of the German “Maritime Operations Centre” (MOC) and will control both German and Polish Navy submarines. Command over submarines, however, will still be retained by the respective countries.

Through the SubOpAuth, as the task group name is abbreviated to, two Polish Navy officers will be permanently stationed in the German MOC which is located in Glücksburg, Germany. One of the greatest benefits the Polish Navy will have from this cooperation is that it will be able to connect its submarines to the German guidance systems i.e. the ‘Submarine Broadcast Control Authority’.

“It really is a special move to transfer control of such an important national, strategic asset to mutual hands,” Rear Admiral Andreas Krause, Inspector of the German Navy, explained.

The latest cooperation agreement goes back to 1999 when the two countries signed documents for basic military cooperation which has since been broadened on a number of occasions. The most recent agreement was signed May 27, 2013 when the two ministries of defense broadened their maritime collaboration.

While at a different technical footing, German and Polish submarine fleets are similar in size. The German Navy operates six Type 212A air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines while the Polish Navy has five submarines – one from the former Soviet Kilo-class and four ex-Norwegian submarines. The ‘Koben’-class submarines that were operated by the Norwegian Navy were originally built at the German shipyard Nordseewerken in the 1960’s and transferred to Poland in 2002 and 2003.

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zoomA Landing Craft Air Cushion leaves the well deck of amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) with equipment for Marines conducting exercises during BALTOPS 2016 (BALTOPS). Photo: US Navy

The 2016 edition of the multinational exercise BALTOPS has entered the third and final phase of serialized training operations, June 10.

The final, tactical exercise portion of the exercise, continues in-port and at-sea training events which are a culmination of combat enhancement training, and force integration training involving asymmetric and multinational sea/air forces to develop interoperability in execution of a peace enforcement mission.

One hundred five training events, with a specific start and end time, were conducted during the CET/FIT phase. During tactical exercise (TACEX), the unscripted portion of the exercise, a fictional scenario is played out in real time using specific mission areas to accomplish objectives. These mission areas include: amphibious warfare, surface warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, maritime interdiction operations, anti-air warfare and countering asymmetric threats.

The key events are receiving and integrating allied forces, conducting thorough preparatory training, establishing the necessary conditions for conducting realistic tactical missions, exchanging information, following safety rules, maintaining C2 and logistic support capabilities, conducting amphibious operations, and developing individual commander and staffs skills.

Fifteen NATO and two partner nations are participating in the 44th iteration of the multinational maritime exercise BALTOPS 2016 in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and throughout the Baltic Sea, June 3-19.

“BALTOPS is the exercise that just keeps giving; it’s bigger and better each year. This year we have over 4,000 sailors and marines operating in 43 different naval ships from 17 nations; all honing their professional skills and making lasting partnerships,” said British Royal Marines Col. Garth Manger, Operations Officer for BALTOPS 2016.

Participating nations in BALTOPS 2016 include Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.

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