Holloman AFB MQ-9s participate in maritime exercise
Two MQ-9 Reaper drones from Holloman Air Force Base were part of the Rim of the Pacific exercise at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii between June 29 and Aug. 4.
The exercise, known as RIMPAC, involved 26 nations, 38 ships, three submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. The exercise was the largest maritime exercise in the world hosted around the Hawaiian Islands and southern California.
Holloman Airmen Lt Col. Justin Mueller participated in the exercise as a RIMPAC MQ-9 detachment commander.
"So far, RIMPAC has been eye opening for us," Mueller said. "(RIMPAC is) a very, very large exercise that we've been fortunate to participate in. Our Airmen are learning lots of things from the expeditionary mindset of getting out, setting up operations, applying aircraft and adhere to the training aspects of maritime in operability and cooperation with partner nations and service vessels that we usually don't get to do a lot."
The 2022 RIMPAC, themed "Capable, Adaptive, Partners," marked the 28th year of the exercise which began in 1971.
The exercise included teaching participants about disaster relief, maritime security operations, sea control and complex warfighting.
A training program included amphibious operations, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine, air defense exercises, counter-piracy operations, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal and diving and salvage operations.
More:Holloman AFB hold quarterly load competition
Participating nations were Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter.
If you have questions about your subscription, please contact Customer Service at AlamogordoDailyNews@Gannett.com or call 1-877-301-0013.
This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Holloman AFB MQ-9s participate in maritime exercise
