A ROYAL New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P-8A Poseidon aircraft and crew are taking part in a multinational warfare exercise around Guam, honing their ability to work with other nations and cope with the Western Pacific heat and humidity.
About 35 personnel, including communications operators, maintainers, exercise control personnel, and intelligence specialists are involved in the eight-day exercise, Pacific Vanguard, that started this week.
They are joined by about 2500 personnel from Australia, Canada and the United States, with Japan and South Korea leading the event.
While most of the assets in the exercise will be ships and submarines, the No. 5 Squadron Poseidon aircrew will fly alongside a United States Navy P-8A aircraft.
Detachment Commander Wing Commander Mark Chadwick said the exercise was broken up into a number of phases, where task groups conduct maritime warfare operations, including scenarios targeting surface and sub-surface threats.
“Towards the end of the exercise will be the execution of the warfare phase that involves a scenario that will run for about 36 hours.”
Guam is entering the wet season, so the conditions are warm and humid, Wing Commander Chadwick said.
“We’re getting daily rainfall and that, combined with the heat, is a challenge for the maintenance team who work outside. It’s important we ensure they don’t get into any heat-stress situations.
The multinational aspect of the exercise would throw up some challenges for the aircrew, he said.
“We will need to ensure clear communication and understanding is established to provide coherent and safe coordination among the different participating nations.
“Achieving coherence across multinational operations doesn’t happen by chance. It requires consistent engagement with our partners. We need to have a seamless understanding of how each other operates if we ever need to do it in a conflict situation.”
