The U.S. Navy issued the following news release:
Four aircrews and more than 50 maintenance personnel from the Broadarrows of Patrol Squadron (VP) 62 and the Totems of VP-69 increased their warfighting skills during RIMPAC 2012 this month.
The 23rd biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise ran in and around the Hawaiian Islands from June 29 to Aug. 3 and is the world?s largest international maritime exercise.
The exercise involved 25,000 personnel from 22 nations, 40 ships and submarines, and more than 200 aircraft. RIMPAC is designed to foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world?s oceans.
?Our goal at the exercise was to obtain advanced qualifications in our core readiness areas of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare,? said Cmdr. Jerry Dearie, commanding officer of VP-62. ?From where I stand, we could not have had a better exercise. The Broadarrows flew 10 coordinated operations sorties accruing more than 50 hours and were awarded 18 advanced crew qualifications.
?RIMPAC has always been a valuable source of multi-nation, combined operational training. I don?t remember the last time we missed one,? said Dearie, who joined the squadron in 2002 as a new lieutenant commander. ?It takes a great effort to get aircrew and maintenance personnel out to a major fleet exercise, but the fantastic return on investment will keep us coming back for years to come.?
The theme of RIMPAC 2012 was ?Capable ? Adaptive ? Partners.? The participating nations and forces exercised a wide range of capabilities that demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The realistic and relevant training syllabus at RIMPAC included exercises in a wide array of operational fields, including amphibious ops, missile and gunnery firing, anti-submarine warfare, air defense, counter-piracy, mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, and diving and salvage.
?During the next 12 months the VP-69 crews will expand their readiness qualifications to be world-wide deployable. The RIMPAC exercise allowed our combat aircrews to conduct missions and hone their warfighting skills in a challenging real-world environment,? said Cmdr. Mike Mineo, commanding officer of VP-69. ?The Totems flew more than 50 hours and achieved 14 readiness qualifications. Our crews and maintainers performed exceptionally well and were an outstanding representation of the Navy Reserve.?
?We successfully fired a live Maverick missile against a decommissioned target ship as part of a large joint live-fire exercise,? said Cmdr. Kris Moorhead, one of VP-62?s mission commanders at RIMPAC. ?It is a very rare opportunity for us to get live ordnance in a training environment so this has been a fantastic training exercise for the aircrew and maintenance personnel.
?We also dropped a torpedo on an undersea target sled,? said Moorhead. ?Most of our events were focused on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and it was a great training. We coordinated our ASW efforts with P-3s from several countries, ASW helicopters, and the newest ASW patrol aircraft, the P-8.?
Broadarrow and Totem maintenance personnel also supported the maintenance departments of Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 2.
Chief Aviation Electrician?s Mate (AW/NAC) Brian Norman has been a member of the VP-69 Totems for 12 years, serving as both a P-3 flight engineer and maintenance control supervisor.
?We really fit in well with our active duty counterparts in the maintenance department. Keeping up with a very high operational tempo required a real team effort,? Norman said.
?We assisted in operational and maintenance support of eight P-3C aircraft participating in the monthlong multinational maritime operation,? said Chief Aviation Structural Mechanic (AW) Tyson Anderson. ?My maintenance team worked on avionics systems, power plants, electronics systems as well as airframe related issues on eight P-3C aircraft.?
While it has always been a major exercise for the Broadarrows and Totems, RIMPAC 2012 was even more important this year for the VP Reserve units. Next summer, both squadrons will deploy to forward locations to fill a void created by the transition from the P-3 Orion to the P-8 Poseidon.
?VP-69 was proud to demonstrate their Totem tenacity and experience throughout the exercise,? said Mineo, who has served as a full-time support officer in both squadrons. ?We flawlessly conducted our operational readiness evaluation flight events under the evaluation of Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 10 in prepare for their upcoming partial unit mobilization in June.?
For more information, visit?www.navy.mil?,?www.facebook.com/usnavy?, or?www.twitter.com/usnavy?.
For more news from Patrol Squadron 62, visit?www.navy.mil/local/vp62/?.
This article was posted by Neptune Maritime Security via avionics-intelligence.com. MaritimeSecurity.Asia in cooperation with?www.neptunemaritimesecurity.com
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