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RBN divers aboard the rescue and salvage ship USS Salvor (ARS 52) look on as a U.S. Navy sailor shows them a U.S. chain stopper used to prevent an anchor chain and its attached rigging from moving.
Photo by EM1 Elysian McIntyre, USN |
The underway phase of the exercise included a combined RBN/U.S. Navy staff for the first time in the history of CARAT Brunei. The combined staff was embarked in the USS Russell (DDG 59). During the underway phase, the U.S. Navy’s Portable Allied Command, Control, and Communications Terminal (PAC3T) provided the exercise headquarters ashore with a common operational picture. The PAC3T monitor displayed maps for tracking the ships. In addition, the U.S. Navy’s Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) provided the RBN and U.S. ships with secure email and “chat” capabilities.
Royal Brunei Navy ships participating in CARAT Brunei 2004 included the missile gunboats KDB Waspada and KDB Seteria, as well as the coastal patrol craft KDB Pemburu and KDB Perwira. The U.S. CARAT Task Group included the U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter Mellon (WHEC 717), the dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), the guided missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59) and USS McCampbell (DDG 85), and the rescue and salvage ship USS Salvor (ARS 52). A U.S. Navy SH-60 Seahawk helicopter and a P-3C Orion aircraft also participated.
Interoperability at Sea
RBN and U.S. Navy sailors worked through intermittent rain showers and high winds to successfully launch two Banshee Target drones from the flight deck of USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). The drones served as targets for antiair warfare gunnery training designed to increase RBN-U.S. Navy warship interoperability. The RBN ships operated closely with the USS McCampbell and USS Russell.
“Today, five ships took a reference to fire from a command and control ship and flawlessly executed on all airborne contacts,” said U.S. Navy OS1 Herb Craft. Commenting on the Shipboard Self-Defense System (SSDS) on board the Fort McHenry, OS1 Craft said the system “successfully tracked the Banshee drone with the ship’s various radars and fire-control systems.” He added, “What this system and teamwork proved was that you can send one U.S. ship out with our allies as fire support and we get the job done. This is what CARAT is all about.”
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A Brunei tugboat maneuvers the guided missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG 85) as the ship gets underway for the at-sea portion of the Brunei phase of Exercise CARAT 2004.
U.S. Navy photo by JOC Melinda Larson, USNR |
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