2 PH ships in Hawaii for war games

TWO Philippine Navy ships dock on Pearl Harbor. PH NAVY PHOTO The Philippine Navy reached a milestone yesterday with the arrival of two of its warships to Hawaii for this year’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises.

Cdr. Jonathan Zata, Public Affairs Office director of the Navy, said that the arrival of BRP Andres Bonifacio (FF-17) and BRP Davao del Sur (LD-602) at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii clearly indicates the Philippine Navy’s “coming of age.”

“The PN’s participation in this undertaking is indeed an attestation that the nation’s premier maritime force is ‘coming of age,’ consistent to its vision towards a strong and credible navy, that our maritime nation can be proud of,” said Zata.

This is the first time that Philippine Navy has sent warships to RIMPAC – complemented by the 700-strong Naval Task Force 86, headed by Captain Ernesto Baldovino.

RIMPAC will officially open today with the conduct of the harbor phase of the five-week naval training, the largest in the world.

Zata said the two Philippine Navy ships, with one AW 109 helicopter, will be joining the harbor exercises with other navies on Thursday.

“There will be opening tomorrow (Wednesday) then starting June 28 there will be a harbor phase which includes urban environment training, ground air integration training, running zone operations, amphibious assault, inter-familiarization,” said Zata.

“So this will happen while the ships are still at port, they are still at the pier and preparing for the next phase,” he added.

After the harbor phase, Zata said that the integration phase follows which includes kinetic exercises like live fire and maneuver training.

Zata said that included in the planning is BRP Andres Bonifacio’s firing of its guns.

“But it will depend on the pre-sail conference. There will be meetings together with other navies. So based on that, we would know based on what was planned because there was pre-exercise planning,” Zata explained.

Among the participating navies to this year’s RIMPAC are the United States, Australia; France, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, India, Malaysia, Peru, South Korea, Chile, Indonesia and Mexico.

More than 40 ships are taking part in the biennial naval exercises hosted by the US Navy.