Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
RimPac Needs To Be Reconsidered
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_RIMPAC
Ship collisions in the narrow Pearl Harbor channel are a major concern, as well as an accidental or intentional act of terrorism and suicide by a disgruntled crew member of a participating ship.
RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, participating countries conduct live fire sinking exercises (SINKEX) involving over 140 live-fire events that include 30 surface-to-air engagements, 40 air-to-air missile engagements, 12 surface-to-surface engagements, 76 laser-guided bombs, and more than 1,000 rounds of naval gunfire from at least 20 surface combatant warships.
World’s Largest War Game
RimPac, which starts in late June and lasts until early August, is a biennial military exercise often referred to as the world’s largest war game. It is also making Pearl Harbor Hawaii the number one military target in the world, especially with so many warships packed into Pearl Harbor. If war comes, striking during RimPac might be an enemy attack plan. And it may not be immediately with missiles, but possibly other forms of attack such as biological war on the entire island of Oahu such as a severe fast spreading virus, internet cyber warfare, misinformation, or sabotage of key infrastructure such as Oahu power grids, water supply to cause mass public panic.
The U.S. Navy's Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Training Exercise Poses Significant Danger to Hawaii's Environment and Marine Life - NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wat_06052401a.pdf
Remarkably, the Navy has asked you to authorize RIMPAC through a rushed process that does not respect the scope of the exercise, the scientific literature on sonar, or the legal standards that apply. It would have you conduct your NEPA review under an environmental assessment rather than an environmental impact statement, despite the impossibility in this case of making a “finding of no significant impact”; and it would have you approve its marine mammal takes through a harassment authorization rather than a regulatory permit, despite a proven risk of whale mortalities that a mere authorization cannot cover. Yet the Navy had two years since the 2004 strandings to do the right thing—
to prepare an environmental impact statement (“EIS”), conduct a proper alternatives analysis, and bring its biennial exercise into genuine compliance with the law. It did not, and now it asks your agency to join in its mistake.
RimPac could invite accidental explosions of munitions, possible individual acts of destruction, suicide
Pearl Harbor full of warships from 20 different nations would be an inviting target for a surprise attack, act of terrorism or suicide by one or more crewmembers from any of the navies attending
Above, arson fires that destroyed two Navy warships (Essex and Miami) that caused well over one Billion in damage and loss of operational capacity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_(SSN-755)
25-year-old Casey Fury pleaded guilty to setting fire to US military submarine USS Miami because he wanted to go home. The ship was cut up for scrap in Washington state's Puget Sound at the cost of $54 million.
On 1 March 2012, Miami pulled into the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for a scheduled 20-month Engineered Overhaul (EOH) and system upgrades. On 23 May, a shipyard employee started a fire that spread to crew living, command and control, and torpedo spaces. Repairs were initially estimated to require three years and $450 million, a figure that was later revised to a range of $450 million to $700 million.
On 6 August 2013, Navy officials said that due to budget cuts the vessel would not be repaired. The submarine was placed on the inactive list, then decommissioned on 28 March 2014.
Arson suspected as the cause of a July 12 fire that left extensive damage to the Bonhomme Richard
SAN DIEGO — Arson is suspected as the cause of a July 12 fire that left extensive damage to the Bonhomme Richard docked off San Diego, and a U.S. Navy sailor was being questioned, a senior defense official said Wednesday.
The sailor was being interviewed as part of the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the official said, adding that defense department leaders were notified of the development.
The official, with knowledge of the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. The sailor was not detained.
The amphibious assault ship burned for more than four days and was the Navy’s worst U.S. warship fire outside combat in recent memory.
Fire-ravaged ship Bonhomme Richard, the US Navy has no good options
For the fire-ravaged ship Bonhomme Richard, the US Navy has no good options
“There is fire and water damage, to varying degrees, on 11 of 14 decks,” Gilday wrote. “With the flight deck as a reference, I walked sections of the ship 5 levels below and had the opportunity to examine the superstructure.
“The island is nearly gutted, as are sections of some of the decks below; some perhaps, nearly encompassing the 844 ft length and 106 ft beam of the ship ([Naval Sea System Command’s] detailed assessment is ongoing). Sections of the flight deck are warped/bulging.”
The Navy has a long history of reviving its damaged ships as it did with the destroyers Fitzgerald and McCain, and Congress is usually willing to float the money. But it’s unclear if the Navy will want to invest what will likely be hundreds of millions of dollars into a 22-year-old ship. After a 2012 fire onboard the attack submarine Miami, the Navy determined the roughly $700 million price tag was too steep to justify.
Pearl Harbor Shooting Investigation Finds Deeper Mental Health Concerns Among Submarine Crew
On Dec. 4 Gabriel Romero shot three people. The 22-year-old Navy sailor was assigned to the submarine the USS Columbia and had just shown up for routine guard duty at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
Just minutes after he started his shift, he fired his M-4 rifle at a group of civilian workers, killing Roldan Agustin, 49, and Vincent Kapoi Jr., 30, and wounding Roger Nakamine, 36.
The U.S. Navy sailor who fatally shot two people at Pearl Harbor before killing himself was unhappy with his commanders and had been undergoing counseling, a military official said Friday.
A command climate survey conducted in October 2019 for the Columbia found 35.5% of those on the crew knew someone who thought of suicide and that 6.6% knew someone who had attempted suicide. There were also 34% who did not feel comfortable talking about difficulty at work with their immediate supervisors.
One anonymous comment in response to the survey says, “Everyday (sic) I have to convince my self (sic) to get out of bed to come to work. I pray that on the driver (sic) I get in a car accident and die. Often times I considering (sic) putting my pistol in my mouth and ending it all or just throwing myself into the dry dock basin.”
Gabriel Romero, 22, also faced non-judicial punishment, which is a lower-level administrative process for minor misconduct, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters not made public. He used his two service weapons in the attack, the official said.
Romero also wounded a 36-year-old man in the attack Wednesday at the naval shipyard within the storied military base before turning the gun on himself, authorities said. That victim is in stable condition at a hospital.
With So Much RimPac Ammunition Available Going Around There Could Be Theft Or Explosive Accidents At West Loch
After deaths at ammo plants, lawmakers quiz US Army leaders on modernizing production, West Loch Run By Contractors
“We said that’s a lot of mishaps to be occurring in these industrial facilities in such a short time span,” a committee aide told Defense News. “Let’s pull the thread and see what’s going on there. From there it’s spiraled into looking at the whole munitions enterprise, from production through demilitarization and disposal of weapons.”
The handful of ammunition facilities around the country are largely government-owned, contractor-operated ― some with infrastructure that dates back to World War II. The work at these facilities are extremely dangerous, with tragic mishaps over the last few years occurring at locations operated by Orbital ATK, AMTEC Less-Lethal Systems and BAE Systems (BAE is the West Loch contractor.)
A separate March 25, 2020 Department of Defense Inspector General audit of the Defense Department’s transportation practices for arms, ammunition and explosives released in March faulted the department for failing to properly track thousands of shipments by truck and rail, which exposed the public to materiel that were “stolen, damaged, exploded, ignited, or spilled across public highways.” The Pentagon’s inspector general also found that commercial carriers did not always comply with safety regulations.
The DoD audit found specific packing, tracking, and delivery problems and an accident in 2017, the public was unnecessarily exposed to AA&E that was stolen, damaged, exploded, ignited, or spilled across public highways. Any mishap with AA&E can be catastrophic. And worse, ammunition was shipped without being entered into tracking systems which could potentially lead to theft and weapons and munitions being sold on the black market.
Lawmakers are expected to meet Tuesday to broadly discuss modernizing the military’s munitions production, but the hearing follows a series of explosions and fires that have killed and injured nearly a dozen workers at munition plants in recent years and led to a previously unreported investigation by the House Armed Services Committee.
The hearing, before the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, comes as Congress weighs legislation that would increase oversight of the military’s suppliers by the Pentagon and Congress. Lawmakers are also considering an independent review of the enterprise.
The deaths and injuries spurred a bipartisan, six-month investigation conducted by the House Armed Services Committee that covered production, storage, transportation and demilitarization.
What if one of the RimPac ships ran aground in the entrance to Pearl Harbor?
5 February 2009, the Navy Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, USS Port Royal ran aground
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_USS_Port_Royal_grounding
No one was injured during the recovery effort, though damage to the reef was extensive, both from the ship's hull and the cables used to drag the ship off the reef. Captain John Carroll was relieved of his duties and, along with the ship's executive officer, commander Steven Okun and three other sailors, subsequently disciplined for dereliction of duty and improperly hazarding a vessel. Carroll had been the commanding officer of Port Royal since 23 October 2008.
The ship suffered heavy damage to the underwater bow sonar dome and to its propellers and propeller shafts in the incident, and it was dry docked for repairs. Navy investigation found that the grounding was caused by a combination of a misread navigation system, a sleep-deprived commanding officer, broken equipment, and an inexperienced and dysfunctional bridge team. In 2020, a US Navy budget plan proposed putting Port Royal on a path to early decommissioning, as it had not been modernized.
USS Port Royal grounding detailed
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Jul/12/ln/hawaii907120367.html
The Honolulu Advertiser ran a story about the grounding circumstances based on the Navy's Safety Investigation Board findings on the accident.
The 567-foot ship was under way at 8:45 a.m. on its first day of sea trials after $18 million in repairs in the shipyard. The fathometer, for determining water depth, was broken, according to the safety board.
At 12:01 p.m., the Voyage Management System's primary input at the chart table was shifted from a forward Global Positioning System to forward Ring Laser Gyro Navigation.
"The quartermaster of the watch continued to plot fixes as satellite fixes when (Voyage Management System) was aligned to receive (Ring Laser Gyro) input," the safety board said. "The bridge team did not recognize the input difference on the (Voyage Management System) display, and relied on VMS without question."
The report said that when the input was switched, the Voyage Management System "indicated numerous positional difference alarms that were not addressed."
China’s Past Participation in RIMPAC Didn’t Yield Intended Benefits of Easing Tensions
https://news.usni.org/2018/05/24/33834
When the U.S. military first invited China to participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific naval exercise, it hoped China might stop its militarization of the South China Sea and realize that engaging in great power competition was futile.
Now, four years later and with neither goal accomplished, a naval expert involved in inviting China to RIMPAC in the first place says he’s not surprised the country was disinvited this week from participating in this summer’s event.
Clark said offering Chinese naval leaders a peek behind the curtain of U.S. high-end naval operations only seemed to encourage them to redouble their efforts to improve their own naval capabilities and to build artificial islands to host missiles, radars and other military gear.
“They’re developing their high-end capabilities, so there’s no deterrent, and their behavior has not changed,” Clark said.
Meanwhile, China has continued constructing what appear to be military bases on artificial islands. These “islands” are low-tide elevations land formations that are not recognized by the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention as commanding a territorial sea because they are underwater during high-tides. China has been a signatory to the UNLoS treaty for more than two decades, according to the U.N., though the U.S. has never signed the treaty.
Uninvited China is not deterred – A Missile war is coming
https://news.usni.org/2018/05/23/china-disinvited-participating-2018-rimpac-exercise
The U.S. military has disinvited China from participating in the upcoming Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii, a Defense Department spokesman announced.
“We have strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea. China’s landing of bomber aircraft at Woody Island has also raised tensions,” he continued.
“We believe these recent deployments and the continued militarization of these features is a violation of the promise that President Xi made to the United States and the World not to militarize the Spratly Islands.”
RIMPAC 2020 and China Isn’t Coming
China participated in two RIMPAC exercises, in 2014 and 2016 despite the tension in the South China Sea due to China’s territorial dispute and militarization of islands in the area. During the 2014 exercises, Beijing slipped a secret participant in along with the four ships that were supposed to participate in the exercise.
Along with a hospital ship, a frigate, supply ship, and a destroyer, China also sent an electronic surveillance ship to the exercise. The ship, a Dongdiao-class auxiliary general intelligence (AGI) ship, is one of three such ships that China has in service and are used to gather data from ships and airplanes at sea. The ship even operated near the USS Ronald Regan and its carrier strike group as well as the main body of ships taking part in maneuvers.
