Reservists from 513th Air Control Group head out for RIMPAC

Published July 19, 2010
By Lt. Col. Richard Curry
507th Air Refueling Wing

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma -- An E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft along with a total of 44 Air Force Reservists from the 513th Air Control Group and once active duty member from the 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron left for Hickam AFB, Hawaii Saturday to participate in a major U.S Pacific Fleet exercise

The exercise, called RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific), is a series of multinational maritime exercises currently underway in the Hawaiian operating area. The 513th ACG reservists are slated to return to Oklahoma by July 24.

Held biennially by U.S. Pacific Fleet, the 2010 RIMPAC exercise is the 22nd time it has been held and the 5th time supported by Oklahoma Air Force reservists. Fourteen nations, 32 ships, five submarines, over 170 aircraft and 20,000 personnel will participate in the exercise in the Hawaiian operating area in, and around, the islands of Hawaii. In addition to U.S. military forces, military units from Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand will participate. The countries of Brazil, India, and New Zealand will send observers.

RIMPAC helps improve leadership at all levels, increase personnel proficiency, and hone leadership's ability to adapt to rapid changes. For the naval forces involved the exercise offers the opportunity for forces to hone their skills - from disaster response to anti-piracy operations -- in a complex, challenging, multinational environment designed to improve cooperation and command and control operations.

The exercise is split into four distinct phases -- Inport, Schedule of Events, Force Integration Training (FIT), and Tactical. During the Inport phase, participants will continue to build on the relationships developed during the planning conferences.

During the Schedule of Events phase, maritime participants will work in smaller, multinational groups to rehearse and conduct gunnery, missile, anti-submarine, and air defense exercises, as well as maritime interdiction and vessel boardings, explosive ordnance disposal training, diving and salvage training, mine clearance activities, and support an amphibious landing. The land component will operate as a multinational force and conduct amphibious landings and assaults and fire support coordination exercises, and the Marine Corps warfighting lab will test enhanced company operations. The air component will fly a variety of sorties involving attack aircraft, bombers, tankers, electronic warfare and airlift.

The Force Integration Training (FIT) phase provides a forum for integrated training with air, land and maritime forces to rehearse for the tactical phase. This phase also provides an opportunity for staff ashore to exercise operational level planning.
Finally, during the Tactical Phase, participants will transition into the execution of a warlike scenario consisting of unscheduled events where participants will have the opportunity to operate as they would during actual real world contingency or combat operations.

According to 513th officials, an advance team departed earlier this week to participate in the FIT phase and help coordinate the integration of follow on AWAC assets into the Tactical Phase of the exercise.

According to Lt. Col. Wayne Polinski, 513th Operations Support Flight and Director of Operations for the deployed AWACS team, "This is the first time our group has participated in RIMPAC. RIMPAC will provide us the opportunity to work with maritime assets that we don't have available for our normal flight profiles. The majority of air assets will come from the US Navy and Air Force but Australia and Canada will be participating so we will receive valuable international experience."

The colonel said the reserve team will become involved in another first-time experience, that being to help the Australian Air Force with its Airborne Early Warning and Control platform.

"We plan on helping with test points for the new AEWC platform for the Australian Air Force called Wedgetail. We will participate in War at Sea Exercise (WASEX), Dynamic targeting, Strike, and Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions," Polinski said. "We anticipate receiving some great interoperability training with the Navy along with working in a robust data link environment that will give our crews the experience they need to operate in any future joint environment," he said."

Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel Polinski said the Reserve AWAC team objectives were to gain additional training experience operating their crews in a large force employment with air and maritime assets; maintaining a common operating picture in a robust data link environment; and maintain effective coordination with the Combined Air and Space Operations Center (CAOC) to ensure accurate targeting and meet timelines for F2T2EA (Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage and Assess) objectives.

"We're looking forward to the challenge of operating in a mixed aerial and naval environment while helping to find, target and direct engagement towards opponent forces," he said.