CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Singapore (NNS) -- The 10th edition of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise series got under way following a June 1 ceremony here that reflected on the past and highlighted the future.
CARAT is a series of bilateral exercises held annually throughout Southeast Asia that began in 1995, by combining a number of existing exercises to be conducted sequentially by a single U.S. Navy task group.
“An entire generation of Republic of Singapore Navy senior leadership, officers and sailors have grown up on a healthy diet of CARAT exercises,” said Col. James Soon, the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) fleet commander. Soon addressed a crowd of more than 100 U.S. and RSN sailors and officers in the base’s fleet command building auditorium during the opening ceremony.
“Friendship ties now are investments for future generations of leaders and an important fabric of military and even international diplomacy,” said Soon.
During CARAT Singapore, more than 1,500 personnel from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and the Singapore Armed Forces, along with 12 ships and a variety of aircraft, will take part in an assortment of exercise events ranging from at-sea gun and missile shoots to in-port force protection drills.
“The Singapore phase of CARAT was the very first in the history of the exercise series, and I think it is fitting that in this year, the 10th, the Singapore phase is again the initial phase for our CARAT task group,” said Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn, commander of Task Force 712 and the U.S. Navy’s executive agent for CARAT. “Technology and our mutual commitment to developing our navy-to-navy relationship have brought us very, very far.”
This year’s exercise includes a number of firsts that Quinn said, “…when viewed in the aggregate, paint a telling picture of just how much CARAT Singapore has matured.”
“Planning staff from both navies will share operational and tactical information in a seamless manner for the first time,” Soon said. “I know that this effort will act as the springboard for further integration of information between the United States Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy. It is a necessary ingredient for close collaboration especially in the current maritime security environment.”
The first time deployment of the mobile command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) system PAC3T in an RSN ship will allow this information exchange and sharing of a “common operational picture,” when a combined USN/RSN command staff leads the underway portion of the exercise from RSS Resolution - also a CARAT first. Additionally, the installation and use of the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange (CENTRIX) system in Resolution will provide USN and RSN ships email and "chat" communications capabilities. This will be the first use of CENTRIX during CARAT.
“These two systems will increase the headquarters staff’s situational awareness and our mutual interoperability,” Quinn said. “In a real world contingency, this capability could make a difference between success and failure. And in 1995, this capability would have been only a dream.”
Capt. Buzz Little, commander, Destroyer Squadron 1 and the CARAT Task Group, along with his staff, will embark Resolution and work side-by-side with his RSN counterpart, Col. Ng Chee Peng, commander of the RSN’s 1st Flotilla and its CARAT task group during the exercise. “This is a ground breaking development,” Quinn said.
Leaders recognized other new initiatives, including the inclusion of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59) and USS McCampbell (DDG 85).
“The DDGs are a CARAT first, and their participation symbolizes the U.S. Navy’s commitment to this exercise, Singapore and this region of the world,” Quinn added.
Besides Singapore, CARAT participants this year include Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
While each country phase differs based on the desires of CARAT partners, the general focus is on interoperability of sea services in areas such as operational planning, command and control, tactics, logistics support and maritime law. A variety of seminars in areas ranging from damage control to public affairs are also scheduled, as are community service projects and social events that provide exercise participants a chance to develop personal relationships so critical to combined operations.
“You will find that these personal relationships you develop will be the great facilitator when we operate as a team. So I encourage each of you to make the most of these opportunities to get to know one another. You will find that we are all far more similar than different,” Quinn said.
The U.S. CARAT Task Group, under the leadership of Little, is made up of U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter Mellon (WHEC 717), dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59) and USS McCampbell (DDG 85), and rescue and salvage ship USS Salvor (ARS 52). Other elements, including P-3C Orion and SH-60 Seahawk aircraft, are also taking part in the Singapore phase of CARAT.
Little's staff is based in San Diego, as is McCampbell. The cutter Mellon is homeported in Seattle. Russell and Salvor are homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Fort McHenry is part of the U.S. 7th Fleet's forward deployed naval force operating from Sasebo, Japan.
For more information on CARAT, visit www.clwp.navy.mil/carat2004.
