MANILA — The Philippine Navy’s (PN) participation in this year’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval drills in Hawaii will greatly enhance its operational capability, making it more efficient and effective in its mandated task.
“The PN’s participation in this undertaking is expected to advance its maritime operational capability to multilateral level, thereby increasing readiness and interoperability and enabling the nation’s premiere maritime force to be more effective and efficient in the conduct of its mandated task,” Navy spokesperson Capt. Lued Lincuna said in statement over the weekend.
Two Navy ships, the strategic sealift vessel BRP Davao Del Sur (LD-602) and frigate BRP Andres Bonifacio (FF-17), along with its Agusta Westland AW-109 naval helicopter, will participate in RIMPAC 2018 on June 27 to August 2.
These assets, along with an estimated 700 sailors and marines, are expected to depart from Cebu to the Hawaiian training area by June 6.
The RIMPAC maneuvers, considered to be the world’s largest international maritime war games, are led by the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Its theme this year is “Capable, Adaptive, Partners”.
Lincuna said this is the first time the PN will be deploying naval and air assets to RIMPAC.
“In the past years, we were active and regularly sending participants as observers for the RIMPAC but this time it will be the first that we will be sending our ships (Tarlac-class and Del Pillar-class) and aircraft (AW-109) and around 700 sailors and marines,” he added. (Priam Nepomuceno/PNA)
