Interoperability: Continuing Naval Cooperation
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS130429-09
4/29/2013
By Lt. Tim Gorman
HMS DRAGON, At Sea -- (NNS) -- The pre-deployment workups of the British destroyer HMS Dragon (D35) were more like an assembly of the European Union. First there was Flag Officer Sea Training with German and Portuguese ships, then additional training with the Italian and Greek navies and finally an air defense exercise with the French Air Force.
Indeed, interoperability is more than a buzz word amongst Europeans.
Dragon is deployed to the Arabian Gulf for the next six months and is currently employed by Combined Task Force (CTF) 152 providing maritime security to international commerce. This is Dragon's maiden deployment but it is not a new one for the Royal Navy and not one to soon go away.
Capt. Iain Lower, Dragon's commanding officer, believes maritime security will increasingly be undertaken by a coalition of countries that value free trade.
"We are here because of history and we are here because of economics," he said. "At the strategic level, our nations' interests overlap. We have a very clear national interest in keeping trade flowing through the Straits of Hormuz."
Although it may be more common for European navies to operate together, Carrier Strike Group Eight is seeing firsthand the value of EU partners. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) left Norfolk, Va., earlier this year on deployment with German frigate FGS Hamburg (F220). Dragon, though primarily tasked by CTF 152, is finding a few days to operate with the Eisenhower.
"This training is hugely valuable," Lower said. "(The U.S. Navy) has been doing complicated area air defense for quite some time so why would we not try to understand the way the U.S. Navy does its business? Why would we not craft our doctrine and our procedures based on your decades of experience operating carriers?"
The Royal Navy has one carrier similar to an American large-deck amphibious ship, but construction is underway on the new class of Queen Elizabeth carriers, which will feature the F-35 Lightning II.
Dragon, which was commissioned in 2012, is the fourth destroyer in the Royal Navy's Type 45 class. Lower believes the training Dragon is getting with Eisenhower is valuable as it prepares Dragon to operate with the new carriers.
"If you want me to put my money on where I would want to see these ships being primarily used," Lower said, "it's being the air warfare commander to the Queen Elizabeth Class."
That said, the type 45 destroyers are versatile. They are fitted with the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) including the Sampson multi-function radar.
This system, named Sea Viper, is capable of defending the type 45 and the ships in company against multiple attacks from sophisticated anti-ship missiles and aircraft. Sea Viper is an omni-directional system that incorporates three separate mission capabilities in a single naval air defense system: ship self-defense; local area defense for nearby ship defense; and medium and long-range air defense. They are close to an Aegis destroyer in mission and in size.
"We will have a long future operating together with this class of ship," said Rear Adm. Michael Manazir, commander of CSG 8. "I would task the type 45 with air defense of the carrier during deployed operations especially because the Brits are such fine, well-trained warfighters. We have a synergy already"
For the time being, the ships are benefitting from training with one another and laying the groundwork for further cooperation. As military budgets shrink in the western world, the future of maritime security may one day be a British destroyer operating alongside an American carrier, or vice versa.
"It is all about our people and it is all about our people understanding our area and understanding each other," Lower said. "It's those personal relationships that will directly lead to mission success."
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