Mid-Pacific Surface Combatant Operational Employment Program

I link Admiral Robert Willard's blog, but I also think it is probably the most boring Navy blog on the internet, and potentially one of the most boring blogs written by a pilot on the internet. It isn't personal Admiral, it's just one guys opinion.

The irony is, the blog doesn't match anything I hear about the Admiral, because everything I hear suggests he is one of the most interesting Admirals in the Navy. For several months, I'd hear this again and again, and yet not really have any details that backs up the claim. Oh well, I hope to meet him one day so I decided to be patient and continue to read his blog.

About 10 days ago I was cruising Lex's place, one of the least boring Navy blogs on the internet, and perhaps the most interesting blog written by a pilot... and I was surprised to see Lex discussing Admiral Willard. It turns out that during Admiral Willards recent trip to India the entertainment media over there asked him about a certain 1986 movie that Admiral Willard was part of. I did not know until a few days ago Admiral Willard was in Top Gun.

Willard, nicknamed 'Rat' by his Navy colleagues, to help you identify, was the pilot in the black helmet flying the fictional MiG-28 during the dogfight that so easily made Tom Cruise the action star he is today. The helmet still sits under a glass box in his office, reminding him of "his claim to fame." Cruise, the Lt Pete Mitchell in the movie, was identified by the nickname 'Maverick' that also featured Val Kilmer as Lt Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky.

"It has been 22 years. I had the unique opportunity to be involved in the making of the movie because I was the executive officer of the Navy Fighter Weapon School, nicknamed TOPGUN. I was responsible for all of the flying coordination and I flew almost every flight in that, including the A-4 Skyhawk," says Willard.

That is actually a really good article, and does tend to suggest that while the Admiral's blog might be boring by my standards, clearly the Admiral is anything but boring. For the record, I'm hoping he will take my not so subtle hint and show us more of himself on his blog.

Reading the article over at Lex's place was interesting timing though, because before naval activity around Pearl Harbor was front page news, I was reading something on the back page of Navy news out of Pearl that got my attention.

Pearl Harbor-based ships USS Hopper (DDG 70), USS Chosin (CG 65), USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60), USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), and USS Russell (DDG 59), along with assets from Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 37 and Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 2, participated in the first Commander, Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific (CNSG MIDPAC) Surface Combatant Group Sail off the coast of Oahu Jan. 13-15.

The sail supports the Pacific Fleet's new Mid-Pacific Surface Combatant Operational Employment program, which calls for nine of the 11 Hawaii-based surface combatants to focus on the Western Pacific by conducting intermediate/advanced training and regular deployments in the Western Pacific.

As XO of TOPGUN, clearly Admiral Willard knows a thing or two about training, so it wasn't a surprise to learn he is who is behind the Mid-Pacific Surface Combatant Operational Employment program. I know, sounds like a buzz worthy official phrase, and I had no idea what it meant either, but after looking into it I think it is really smart.

What the Navy is doing is slowly shifting the 11 surface combatants at Pearl Harbor into this program. The intent is to shift the training days at sea for intermediate/advanced training from the west coast of the US to the western Pacific instead, the idea being you train where you intend to fight. It doesn't reduce the total number of training days at sea, nor does it effect fuel cost savings or any other such parameters, rather the intent is solely to shift the days at sea into a combined training and operational deployment period and operate the Pearl Harbor ships at a higher state of readiness.

This allows the Pacific fleet to offer greater presence in the western Pacific with the Pearl Harbor ships, but also adds flexibility into operations by combining the two into a single deployment period. For example, last year USS O'Kane (DDG-77) deployed and conducted training in the western Pacific, but due to operational requirements in the 5th Fleet, the ship was then sent forward to that theater for 49 days as part of a single deployment. In the case of USS O'Kane (DDG-77), the training days were conducted in the Western Pacific, thus increased the presence of the US Navy in that theater, but the flexibility of the program allowed the ship to also move over to the Middle East to conduct operations there as well.

Only 9 of the 11 ships out of Pearl are currently part of the program, with USS Chosin (CG 65) and USS Port Royal (CG 73) still yet to be integrated, although both should be within a year. Over time this should allow the Pearl ships to become familiar with the forward deployed strike groups as they interchange regularly as part of training, but also allow the ships to operate in a flexible way with west coast forward deployed strike groups, or independently as needed.

I think this is really smart, because not only is it optimal for naval forces to train how they expect to fight, but it seems to be even more optimal when you can also train where you expect to fight. I believe familiarity with the environment a ship will be conducting operations in during a deployment is important, which makes the Mid-Pacific Surface Combatant Operational Employment program a very clever way to not only improve training, but increase presence in the western Pacific at the same time.

Special thanks to the Pearl Harbor information folks for helping me out with the details, and I thought it interesting they gave credit to Capt. Bill Kearns, DESRON 31, with the details of this clever training/deployment program going on out there. If Captain William Kearns name sounds familiar, which it did for me, you might recall he was the Commodore for the USNS Mercy (T AH 19) Pacific Partnership deployment with Captain Bob last year before becoming Commodore of DESRON 31. It is good to see the Commodore's of our soft power deployments getting recognized for their work, because I expect the expectations of naval forces in the soft power space to expand due to the public success of these new soft power centric deployments, and I think experience in planning and execution of these deployments helps frame our future officers for understanding the challenges facing naval forces not only during wartime, but peacetime as well.