As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...
USS KITTY HAWK, At sea: The USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63)
Carrier Strike Group and embarked Carrier Air Wing 5
completed exercise Malabar Sept. 9 with USS Nimitz
(CVN 68) Carrier Strike Group, Carrier Air Wing 11,
and ships from the Indian Navy, Royal Australian Navy,
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Republic of
Singapore Navy.
The six-day exercise began Sept. 4 and took place in the
Bay of Bengal. It involved more than 20,000 personnel on
28 ships and 150 aircraft.
This year was different from previous exercises because
India expanded invited Japan, Singapore and Australia to
join the exercise, increasing its scale and complexity.
The five nations worked together to improve their anti-
submarine warfare, anti-piracy, humanitarian and combat
skills, in an effort to be prepared should a real-life situation
call them to work together in the future.
"[Malabar] is an exercise for bringing maritime professionals
together and learning from each other" said Vice Adm. Doug
Crowder, U.S. 7th Fleet commander, in a press conference held
on Kitty Hawks flight deck, Sept. 7.
Numerous foreign officers from the participating navies were
also on board to learn about and observe carrier flight operations.
"The ability to work together quickly and effectively doesn't happen
by accident. It happens because of exercises like Malabar, where
our navies can get together, learn and practice our ability to work
together on short notice." said Rear Adm. Nigel Coates, Australian
Fleet commander.
"I think you can never over-estimate the importance of being called
together at short notice to work together and be able to understand
each other" said Republic of Singapore Navy Col. Wellman Wan,
commander of the First Flotilla and navy operations manager.
A team of 14 Sailors from the Kitty Hawk Strike Group embarked
all foreign ships to set up and maintain CENTRIX communications
equipment, which enabled all participating units to communicate
with each other.
MALABAR 07-2 is the strike groups final major exercise of its
summer deployment. The strike group is the U.S. Navys largest
and includes the carrier, seven ships of Destroyer Squadron 15,
two Aegis weapons system equipped guided-missile cruisers and
Carrier Air Wing 5. The ships operate from Fleet Activities Yokosuka,
Japan, and the air wing operates from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan.
Together, they serve as the 7th Fleets combatant force.
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