Overview
- The 30th Rim of the Pacific exercise opened with a ceremony and press conference on June 24, launching drills that will run through July 31 around the Hawaiian Islands.
- Roughly 30 nations and about 30,000 personnel are participating along with dozens of ships, five submarines and nearly 200 aircraft to rehearse maritime, air and land operations.
- Organizers have scheduled 30 to 35 experiments using unmanned systems, making robotics and autonomy a central emphasis meant to test sensors, communications and distributed tactics.
- The exercise will include high-end warfighting training such as anti-submarine warfare, air defense and amphibious operations and will culminate in live-fire sinkings of two decommissioned ships.
- Multinational command teams from Chile, Japan, South Korea and Canada are in place and Military Sealift Command vessels have arrived to provide fuel, food and logistics support, which organizers say preserves alliance readiness and safety at sea.