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CTF 12 Challenges Boxer ESG with Submarine Threat

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060922-12
Release Date: 9/22/2006 4:06:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) Cynthia Clark, Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Commander, Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Force Pacific (CTF 12), planned and executed an Undersea Warfare Exercise (USWEX) for the USS Boxer (LHD 4) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) and attack submarine USS Greeneville (SSN 772), in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands Sept. 19-22.

The exercise is designed to test the effectiveness of fleet anti-submarine warfare, which Pacific Fleet Commander, Adm. Gary Roughead has stated is his top warfighting priority. This was the fourth such USWEX that CTF 12 has coordinated so far this year.

“It is a test of fleet effectiveness, so as a group this theater’s ASW commander and ESG commander can work together to effectively protect the ESG in missions they could face during their deployment,” said CTF 12 plans and exercise officer Lt. Cmdr. Al Lima.

CTF 12 also coordinates with P-3 Orion squadrons from Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., to incorporate air, sub-surface and surface assets. The Pearl Harbor-based submarine Greeneville plays the opposing force submarine that the ESG is trying to detect.

Although Greeneville is not a part of the Boxer ESG, it is currently in the process of preparing for an upcoming deployment.

Assisting in this effort was the ocean surveillance ship USNS Loyal (T-AGOS 22), which usually operates from its base in Yokohama, Japan. This is unusual since the ship spends almost all of its time in the U.S. 7th Fleet, said Master Chief Sonar Technician (Surface) (SW/IUSS) Nancy Rickman, liaison naval officer aboard Loyal. Rickman, who is spending the exercise in the communications cell in the CTF 12 offices, said this is the job Loyal does all the time.

Having the surveillance ship Loyal participate increases the realism of the exercise, said Cmdr. Clem Tanaka, CTF-12 exercise and training officer.

“What we’re trying to do here is emulate the same environment they would encounter during a Western Pacific Deployment,” Tanaka said.

CTF 12 challenged the Boxer ESG with submarine threats while it was conducting a non-combatant evacuation exercise off the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. Tanaka pointed to the recent evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon in noting that non-combatant evacuation is a mission that ESGs are very likely to conduct. While the Lebanon operation was permissive, ESGs must be able to conduct their operations in non-permissive situations, including threats from submarines.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the big command and control picture down to the tactical level,” Tanaka said. “It has been a great success for us as a command and also for the Navy as a whole. We’re confident this is going to play big dividends for the future of ASW.”