Australian soldiers participate to RIMPAC 2018 exercise.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion (Amphibious), Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR), landed to participate in the world’s largest maritime activity, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise 2018.

Australian soldiers and US marines training together during RIMPAC 2018 exercise (Picture source: DVIDS)

The 2 RAR soldiers arrived aboard Royal Australian Navy landing helicopter dock ship HMAS Adelaide (L01) to join more than 25,000 personnel from 25 countries. With the RIMPAC theme being "Capable, Adaptive, Partners," 2 RAR Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Doug Pashley said focusing on the "Partners" aspect will be key to success. “No one has all the answers. It is through partnerships on RIMPAC 18 that we get to see how other people operate, so that we can learn from one another and build capability,” he said.

For this year's RIMPAC, 112 soldiers from 2 RAR and 37 Australian support staff will operate as part of Task Force Black, an Australian-led battalion landing force with US, Tongan and Japanese attachments. Over six weeks, they will immerse themselves in a series of live-fire activities, disaster relief and complex war-fighting scenarios, culminating in an amphibious assault on the world-class Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii.

In preparation, Pashley said that they have spent the first phase of the exercise getting to know their Pacific partners at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. “The exercise has started with Force Integration Training, which has allowed us to meet a number of other nations and partner forces,” Pashley said. “It has involved exposure to valuable training activities including Shallow Water Egress Training as part of helicopter familiarization, live-fire training, urban operations, small boat training and helocast operations, a specialist insertion technique.”

Pashley said that integration training aims at cultivating ties and enhancing interoperability before the participating nations move into the tactical phase which runs through to August. “Training has been fantastic. We have ironed out many of the wrinkles that you normally get when bringing together different nationalities, such as working through differences in command and control, planning and language barriers,” he said. “We’ve worked through these issues and are now well set for the remainder of RIMPAC.”

2 RAR’s participation is just one aspect of the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to the exercise, which includes four RAN surface ships, a submarine, one aircraft and more than 1600 personnel.

Twenty-five nations, 46 ships, five submarines, about 200 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 27 to Aug. 2 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security of the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971.