Australia - A ``minor flood'' in one of our submarines says Defence

On Wednesday 25 July (Australian Eastern Standard Time), while participating in Exercise RIMPAC, HMAS Farncomb suffered a minor flood in one of the submarine's machinery spaces.

At the time of the incident, the submarine was at periscope depth operating its diesel engines to charge the battery.

Standard pre-planned procedures were immediately executed and the situation was dealt with quickly.

The submarine surfaced as part of this normal response. The incident has been traced to a split in a hose on the submarine's weight compensation system.

No personnel were injured and Farncomb is currently returning to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii to replace the hose. An investigation is yet to commence.

There are number of hoses fitted to systems in the Collins class submarine that use the supply of sea water as part of their operation. Weight compensation is one such system, moving water in and out of the submarine to maintain neutral buoyancy.

Following the failure of a sea water cooling hose in HMAS Dechaineux in 2003, there were immediate changes made to procedures and the development of equipment changes commenced.

One of these changes was automation of the closure of all hull valves should a similar situation arise. This change has been installed in HMAS Farncomb.

Farncomb is currently on a 13000 nautical mile, five month deployment having departed her home base in Western Australia in May of this year.

The submarine has spent the last 15 days at sea participating in Exercise RIMPAC, which has included the recent successful firing of a Mk 48 torpedo to sink the 12,106 tonne former USNS Kilauea.

Russian marines land on US warship during RIMPAC war games

Russian amphibious assault units have landed on a US warship as part of the Rim of the Pacific-2012 international naval war games off Hawaii.

For three hours, the “black berets” from Russia’s Admiral Panteleyev large anti-submarine ship were rehearsing an amphibious landing on the Port Royal destroyer.

After that the ships practiced synchronized shooting on a land target.

More than 20,000 servicemen, 45 warships and 100 warplanes from 22 countries are drilling together in Russia’s first RIMPAC exercise.

RIMPAC is held once every two years.

New Zealand - Navy frigate tests missile off Hawaii

The New Zealand Navy frigate, Te Kaha, has test fired a missile worth almost a million dollars off the coast of Hawaii for the first time.

Currently stationed around 280 kilometres from Honolulu, the frigate is part of the New Zealand contingent participating in the bi-annual Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) international maritime warfare exercise.

RIMPAC is hosted by the United States Navy's Pacific Command, in conjunction with the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, and Hawaii National Guard forces.

In a rare chance, the HMNZS Te Kaha tested the ship's most powerful weapon - a missile worth around $800,000 - in a special US navy firing range.

"For us obviously this is a pretty big deal, certainly from the ship's perspective.

"The idea is to test the missile firing and systems aboard the ship but more importantly the people involved in firing the missile," said Te Kaha Commander Jon Beadsmore.

In the three hour long test process, a remote control target is released around 60 kilometres away.

Te Kaha uses radar to track the target, then fires a sea sparrow homing missile to intercept it.

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The US invites allied military forces from the Pacific Rim nations to participate in RIMPAC.

Most of the 22 RIMPAC nations will participate, with this year's exercise to involve combatants from the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia.

Over the next week all manner of missiles and torpedoes will be test fired.

Te Kaha's turn on the range was called resounding a success.

"The missile was fired, gathered nicely into the control beam of the controlling radar, and proceeded towards the target," Beadsmore said.

RIMPAC crews sink former Navy ship Niagara Falls off Kauai

A live-fire exercise, part of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012, sank the ex-USS Niagara Falls (T-AFS-3) in waters 15,480 feet deep, 63 miles southwest of Kauai about 11:31 a.m. on Saturday, July 14.

A live-fire exercise sank the former Navy ship Niagara Falls southwest of Kauai on Saturday, the Navy said.

The exercise was part of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012 naval exercises.

“These exercises provide important opportunities for realistic at-sea training with live ordnance, conditions that cannot be duplicated otherwise,” Vice Adm. Gerald Beaman, 3rd Fleet commander, said in a statement Sunday.

The ship went down in waters 15,480 feet deep, 63 miles southwest of Kauai about 11:31 a.m. Saturday, the Navy said.

The Navy says a sinking exercise or SINKEX gives crews the opportunity to gain proficiency in tactics, targeting and live firing against surface targets, which enhances combat readiness of deployable units.

The former USS Niagara Falls was a Mars-class combat stores ship commissioned in April 1967, decommissioned and transferred to Military Sealift Command in September 1994 and deactivated in September 2008.

Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC exercise through Aug. 3 in and around the Hawaiian Islands.

RIMPAC 2012 - Esquimalt-based submarine makes debut at international super-drill

Naval exercise off Hawaii marks first time Canada shares command

The arrival Tuesday of Canada’s only functioning submarine at the world’s largest naval exercise off Hawaii marks the first time a Victoria-class sub will participate in the international drill.

The ability of HMCS Victoria, the CFB-Esquimalt based submarine, to train with 40 surface ships, six submarines and more than 200 aircraft is an opportunity “you can’t replicate through simulation,” said Commodore Peter Ellis, the Commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific.

The six-week Rim of the Pacific exercise, or RIMPAC, also marks the first time the United States has handed over control of key operations to Canadian officers.

The exercise, which began June 29 and ends Aug. 3, includes 25,000 personnel from 22 nations.

Ellis and two other Canadian officers leading operations during RIMPAC spoke to the Times Colonist on a conference call Tuesday from Pearl Harbour.

After a decade spent mostly in dry dock, HMCS Victoria completed the first part of its work up and fired an exercise version of the MK48 torpedo in March. The boat will complete its high-readiness certification during the exercise, which Ellis called “a huge milestone.”

“Victoria’s crew will really benefit from the entire experience and I dare say the surface ships [and other submarines] will benefit from having Victoria as an opponent,” Ellis said. “Everyone can learn from each other here.”

The super-drill, which is held every two years, is aimed at building relationships between Pacific nations, considered key to keeping the Asia-Pacific corridor safe.

Ellis compared some portions of the exercise to a pick-up hockey game, where players swap teams in order to understand how others operate. “We’ll do that during the exercise to enhance the ability to work together but also to show off [our navy’s] independent capabilities.”

CFB Esquimalt-based war ships HMCS Algonquin and HMCS Ottawa are also participating, as are the base’s fleet diving unit and a Sea King helicopter from 442 Squadron at CFB Comox.

The first week starts with myriad safety meetings and communications tests before the ships start more intense live training, including missile trials, aircraft landing and anti-warfare drills.

The exercise ends with a fast-paced, four-day “real world” scenario that incorporates land, sea and aircraft capabilities, said Ellis, who is the commander of combined task force 176, an amphibious group led by USS Essex.

This year marks the first time Canadian officers have been given senior leadership positions in the exercise, which is typically dominated by the United States.

“The fact that Canada is playing a key role speaks to the size of our contributions to RIMPAC, which is second to the United States in this case,” said Brig.-Gen. Michael Hood, the combined forces air component commander for the exercise.

Rear-Admiral Ron Lloyd has been assigned deputy commander combined task force, the command structure in charge of the exercise.

New Zealand Warships kept out of Pearl Harbour

Te Kaha,

Despite New Zealand signing a sweeping new agreement on military co-operation with the United States, its anti-nuclear legislation is the reason two navy ships have been refused entry to Pearl Harbour during the world's largest maritime exercise.

For the first time in 28 years, the Defence Force is taking part in this year's Exercise Rim of the Pacific, known as Rimpac. The force has proudly publicised New Zealand's involvement in the US-hosted exercise.

The frigate Te Kaha and Auxillary Support Vessel (fuel tanker) Endeavour are in Hawaii, along with a rifle platoon from the Infantry Regiment, a counter-mine team, an air force P-3K Orion and a dive team based in San Diego.

The ships made front-page news in Honolulu, with the local Star-Advertiser reporting New Zealand was the only country "refused entry" to Pearl Harbour.

Prime Minister John Key said there was "nothing new" in the United States' position.

"That's been the position since the (nuclear-free) legislation was passed in 1987."

It did not affect the exercise which was being conducted out at sea.

"They're just in another part of the port, the commercial part, we're not surprised, we thought that might happen," Key told TV3.

The new agreement was a "step forward" because it recognised the laws of each country.

But the nuclear-free issue was a rock in the road that both sides had agreed to get past, Key said.

"We would need to either change our position of the US Navy would need to change its position around confirm or deny and I don't think that's going to happen on either side."

The exercise was still worthwhile, he said.

Defence Force spokesman Major John Gordon said the two ships were berthed at Aloha Towers, which is in the tourist part of Honolulu Port.

"They are not stationed within the actual harbour itself."

Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman said refusing New Zealand ships at naval ports was a longstanding US policy enacted after nuclear-free legislation was introduced in 1987.

"I understand there have been some exceptions in the past but this is nothing new." New Zealand was not prepared to change its policy and so had not expected the US to change its policy, he said.

"The reality is we're getting all the military engagement benefits as it is, so where the boats tied up is not really a big deal to us at all."

The Rimpac exercise was happening at sea, so it was not affecting New Zealand's involvement.

The Washington Declaration was signed by Coleman and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta last month. It agrees on closer co-operation in areas including maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Navy set to resume sinking old warships in coastal waters after 2-year moratorium

FILE - In this March 2, 2005 file photo, the aircraft carrier USS America is shown in Philadelphia. In 2005, the USS America aircraft carrier was towed out to sea on her final voyage. Hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast, U.S. Navy personnel then blasted the 40-year-old warship with missiles and bombs until it sank. The U.S. Navy is resuming its practice of using old warships for target practice, sinking them in U.S. coastal waters after a nearly two-year moratorium spurred by environmental and cost concerns.

The U.S. Navy is resuming its practice of using old warships for target practice and sinking them in U.S. coastal waters after a nearly two-year moratorium spurred by environmental and cost concerns.

Later this month, three inactive vessels — Kilauea, Niagara Falls and Concord — will be sent to a watery grave off Hawaii by torpedoes, bombs and other ordnance during the Rim of the Pacific naval exercises, or RIMPAC.

The military quietly lifted the moratorium on Sinkex, short for sinking exercise, last year after a review of the requirements, costs, benefits and environmental impacts of the program, the Navy said in a statement to The Associated Press.

It will be the first time since 2010 the Navy has used target practice to dispose of an old ship. Previous targets have ranged from small vessels to aircraft carriers such as the USS America, which was more than three football fields long.

Conservation groups argue that the ghost ships should instead be recycled at a ship-breaking facility. Concerns about the long-lasting effects of toxic pollutants onboard the ships spurred a lawsuit by those groups to force the Environmental Protection Agency to better catalog and regulate Sinkex. The case, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is ongoing.

The groups said they did not plan to seek an injunction to stop the Navy from restarting the exercises.

“We are appealing to the Navy to continue their moratorium at least until our case is heard,” said Colby Self of the environmental group Basel Action Network, which joined the Sierra Club in suing the EPA. “After the vessels hit the sea-bottom, it will be a little too late to redress damages to our precious marine resources.”

The Navy says Sinkex offers valuable live-fire training for times of war and provides clean vessels for at-sea, live-fire exercises. The ships can be targeted from the air, ocean’s surface or underwater, with the results aiding the acquisition, planning and design of future vessel classes and systems, the Navy said.

For decades, the Navy destroyed the vessels with little or no oversight. Then in 1999, the EPA ordered the Navy to better document toxic waste left on the doomed ships while removing as much of the material as possible. In return, the EPA exempted the military from federal pollution laws that prohibit any such dumping in the ocean.

The Navy is still in charge of estimating the amount of pollutants onboard after the ships are prepared for sinking. In addition, the Navy must file an annual report with EPA estimating the amount of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, carried by the vessels.

High levels of the chemical are believed to increase the risk of certain cancers in humans. It was banned by the U.S. in 1979 in part because it is long-lasting and accumulates throughout the food chain.

Vice Admiral Gerald Beaman, commander of the combined task force running the exercises, said Monday that each ship will be stripped of PCBs and other contaminants such as asbestos, as required by the Navy’s agreement with EPA.

“There are severe restrictions that are placed on any hulk of that nature,” Beaman said during a news conference at Pearl Harbor, flanked by commanders from participating countries.

The Navy must also conduct the exercises at least 50 nautical miles from shore and in water at least 6,000 feet deep.

Beaman said decisions about sinking the ships versus recycling them are made outside the scope of the exercises.

A previous AP review of records from the past 12 years found the Navy got rid of most of its old ships over that time through target practice. Records show the Navy sunk 109 peeling, rusty U.S. warships off the coasts of California, Hawaii, Florida and other states during that period.

Navy documents show some of the ships it sunk contained an estimated 500 pounds of PCBs.

During the same time, 64 ships were recycled at one of six approved domestic ship-breaking facilities.

RIMPAC, which lasts for five weeks, features training exercises for thousands of military personnel from 22 nations.

US hosts world's largest naval exercises in Hawaii

Some 25,000 sailors and other military personnel from 22 nations are converging on Hawaii starting Friday to practice hunting for submarines and catching pirates in the world's largest naval exercises.

Some 25,000 sailors and other military personnel from 22 nations are converging on Hawaii starting Friday to practice hunting for submarines and catching pirates in the world's largest naval exercises.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet is hosting the Rim of the Pacific exercises, which take place every two years in Hawaii and surrounding waters.

Countries from Japan to Tonga and Russia to Chile are sending 42 surface ships, six submarines and 200 aircraft to participate in the series of drills, which takes place over the next five weeks.

Participants will train to clear mines, dispose of explosives and come to the aid of civilians in natural disasters, among other drills.

Adm. Cecil Haney, the Pacific Fleet commander, said the drills help different nations prepare for emergencies.

"It provides an opportunity for naval forces of like-minded countries to work together so that as things come up, we can more easily assemble and address things like humanitarian assistance, disaster relief," Haney told The Associated Press during a recent interview at his Pearl Harbor headquarters.

The exercises, known as RIMPAC, date to 1971 but have expanded in recent years. Eight nations took part in 2006, 10 in 2008, and 14 two years ago.

This year's exercises come as the U.S. refocuses its attention on the Asia-Pacific region.

In January, the Obama administration announced a new defense strategy to boost the country's presence in Asia because of the region's economic importance and China's rise as a military power. It aims to maintain American military pre-eminence worldwide even as the U.S. cuts spending to reduce the nation's deficit.

As part of that strategy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta earlier this month told a conference in Singapore the U.S. would assign 60 percent of its fleet to the Pacific Ocean by 2020. Currently, the Navy divides its roughly 285 ships equally between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Honolulu-based think tank, said the drills show Panetta and the U.S. Pacific Command - which oversees all American forces in the region - are serious when they say readiness in the Pacific won't be affected by defense drawdowns.

"What better way to prove that than holding the world's largest maritime exercise," Cossa said. "That's putting your money and your ships where you mouth is."

One new part of the drills is the use of a cooking oil and algae biofuel blend to power some of the U.S. vessels and aircraft. The Navy is spending $12 million to buy 425,000 gallons of biofuel for the exercises.

It's part of an effort to demonstrate the Navy can use biofuels to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels. The Navy has been investing heavily in technologies for algae, sugar and other crops so that biofuels will meet half of its fuel needs by 2020.

The exercises end Aug. 3.

American Warships Mass Off China

The U.S. announced that it will have 60 percent of its 270 warships in the Pacific by the end of the decade. Actually, this is just a continuation of a process that began when the Cold War ended in 1991. But these changes move slowly. Largely this is the result of political problems that arise when you try to transfer the home ports (where the ships are when not at sea and where the families of the crews live, and spend their money) from one coast to another. The politicians representing states on the east coast raise a major stink when the navy tries to move the home ports. It's taken the navy a decade to muster the political clout to make the changes happen. Meanwhile, more and more ships based in east coast ports were serving temporarily in the Pacific or Middle East. Now the big shift has been taking place officially. There have been other indicators that this was happening.

For example, six years ago the U.S. Navy eliminated the Atlantic Fleet, after a century of existence. First established in 1906, the Atlantic Fleet was the first, world class, high seas, naval force from the Americas. At the time, there was fear that Germany's ambitious warship building program might someday endanger the United States. The Atlantic Fleet did go to war with the Germans in 1917, and again in 1941.

After 1945, the Atlantic Fleet remained a mighty force, in preparation for a potential battle with the growing naval power of the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, their fleet wasted away within a decade. So the American Atlantic Fleet no longer had a major opponent. Meanwhile, China, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran provided plenty of work for the Pacific Fleet (which normally supplied ships for Middle East and South Asian emergencies.)

The Pacific Fleet still had a full plate after 1991, so the Pacific Fleet remained. The Atlantic Fleet was actually be renamed, and reorganized, into the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which will be responsible for the training, maintenance and operation of naval forces (ships, aircraft and land installations) on both coasts. The Pacific Fleet will still stand ready to deal with potential problems in Asia.

Actually, the Atlantic Fleet did have its name changed once before, in 1922, to "Commander Scouting Force". It was changed back to Atlantic Fleet in 1941, just in time to fight the Germans once more. But the Russians are not expected to be a threat again, at least not any time soon.

For most of the past century, the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets were basically the two major parts of the U.S. Navy, and each developed unique customs. Sailors would often spend their entire careers in one fleet or the other. But when one was transferred, it was immediately apparent, once the transferred sailor arrived at the new location, that the two fleets were quite different. From now on, however, there will be the Pacific Fleet, and, "the rest of the navy."