The United States Navy, along with 28 partner nations, has commenced the 29th biennial Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 around the Hawaiian Islands. The exercise, starting on Thursday and concluding on August 1, involves 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel, according to a navy release.
RIMPAC 2024 aims to enhance multi-domain warfare capabilities, covering a wide range of scenarios such as anti-submarine warfare, multi-ship surface warfare, multinational amphibious landings, and multi-axis defense of carrier strike groups against live forces. A significant highlight of the exercise is the planned sinking of the ex-USS Tarawa, a decommissioned 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship, intended to demonstrate the capability to destroy large amphibious assault ships or aircraft carriers.
Aircraft participating in RIMPAC 2024 include the F-35 Lightning II fighter, P-8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft, and V-22 Osprey, operating from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. Also, the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, has arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for the exercises.
RIMPAC 2024 is larger in scale compared to the previous exercise in 2022, which involved 25 partner nations, 38 surface ships, three submarines, nine national land forces, approximately 170 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel. The amphibious and land forces will comprise units from nine partner nations with 13 ships. Additionally, a humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) exercise involving eight countries, five ships, five landing craft, five aircraft, and over 2,500 participants will be conducted.
The decision to use the ex-USS Tarawa as a target ship is seen as a demonstration of the U.S. and its allies’ capability to counter growing naval power of rival countries.
China has responded critically to RIMPAC 2024, with Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of National Defense, stating that such drills incite bloc confrontation and undermine regional peace and stability. Chinese military experts have pointed out the implications of the exercise being directed at China, given the limited number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region that operate similar vessels and are not allied with the U.S.
Experts like Fu Qianshao have noted that while large military vessels are designed to be resilient, using a real ship as a target provides valuable data for improving attack strategies.
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