The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency exercised ballistic missile defense with Australia, Italy, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands during exercise Pacific Dragon 2024 around the Hawaiian Islands from July 29 to Aug. 13, according to a Friday U.S. 3rd Fleet release.
Pacific Dragon, hosted by U.S. 3rd Fleet, is a biennial exercise designed to improve participating forces’ ability to work together to track and intercept ballistic missiles, according to the release.
“Through exercises and engagements like Pacific Dragon, we improve system interoperability and tactical procedures with our allies and partners,” Vice Adm. John Wade, commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, said in the release. “Combined operations and Integrated Air and Missile Defense tracking and live-fire events improve our proficiency and contribute to maritime security.”
PD24 was the first to use a new and improved target called an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Target (IAMD-T), a semi-guided target designed to trigger and engage terminal ship defense combat systems, such as Standard Missile-2 and SM-6, according to the release.
Pacific Dragon usually begins after the at sea phase of the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise, also held around the Hawaiian Islands. Ships that participated in RIMPAC usually stay to do Pacific Dragon.
For PD24, partner nations participating included Royal Australian Navy (RAN) destroyer HMAS Sydney (DDG-42) and an Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Italian Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) ITS Raimondo Montecuccoli (P432), Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JS Haguro (DDG-180), Republic of Korea Navy destroyer ROKS Yulgok Yi I (DDG-992) and Royal Netherland’s Navy frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803).
U.S. Navy cruiser USS Shiloh (CG-67), destroyers USS Carl M. Levin (DDG-120) and USS Kidd (DDG-100), a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon and an MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle from the 163rd Attack Wing of the California Air National Guard participated, according to the release.
Sydney conducted the first RAN firing of an SM-6 missile at PD24 with the RAN introducing the capability progressively in its Hobart Class destroyers and Hunter Class frigates, which are currently under construction.
Tromp and Raimondo Montecuccoli are undertaking circumnavigation deployments. Tromp set out on March 9 from the Netherlands and spent 25 days in the Red Sea participating in Operation Prosperity Guardian before moving west through the Indo-Pacific. The frigate conducted port visits along with conducting surveillance operations on North Korean sanction violations where it was harassed by Chinese military aircraft. Subsequently, Tromp sailed to Hawaii to participate in RIMPAC 2024 and PD24. The frigate will now sail to the Panama Canal, conduct engagement activities in the Caribbean before crossing the Atlantic to return to the Netherlands.
Raimondo Montecuccoli sailed east through the Atlantic after leaving La Spezia naval base on April 25. The OPV stopped at Miami and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before transiting the Panama Canal. It stopped in San Diego, Calif., before heading to the Hawaiian Islands. Raimondo Montecuccoli will now head to Japan to link up with the Italian Navy Cavour Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to conduct drills there before sailing west to conduct further engagements and activities as it heads home through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.
On Friday, destroyer Halsey returned to Naval Base San Diego, following a seven-month deployment to U.S. 7th Fleet, according to a Navy release. Halsey departed San Diego on Jan. 10 as part of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and served as a carrier escort before detaching to conduct independent operations in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the release.
During its deployment, Halsey participated in various multi-nation exercises such as Noble Dingo, Milan, Tiger Triumph, Tenacious Trident and Valiant Shield, according to the release. The destroyer carried out key tri-lateral operations with the JMSDF and ROKN during Exercise Freedom Edge, participated in several operations with the Royal Australian Navy, including flight operations, tactical maneuvering and a personnel exchange before participating in Exercise Milan 2024, a multinational exercise in India.
In May, Halsey conducted a Taiwan Strait Passage and carried out an innocent passage transit past the China-controlled Paracel Island chain, USNI News previously reported.
Chinese, Russian Ships Sail Near Japan
Around 7 p.m. Friday, two Russian Navy Grisha class corvettes and an Alexandrit-class minesweeper were sighted sailing west in an area 37 miles northeast of Rebun Island and before they sailed west through La Perouse Strait to enter the Sea of Japan, according to a Monday Japan’s Joint Staff Office (JSO) release. Fast attack craft JS Kumataka (PG-827) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) of Fleet Air Wing 2 based at JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base on the main island of Honshu, shadowed the Russian ships, according to the release.
La Perouse Strait divides the Japanese main island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Sakhalin Island and is an international waterway commonly used by Russian naval forces in the region moving between the Sea of Japan in the west and the Sea of Okhotsk in the east.
Around 7 p.m. Saturday, PLAN Luyang class destroyer and a Yushen-class amphibious assault ship were sighted sailing southeast in an area 74 miles northeast of Miyako Island and subsequently sailed southeast in the waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa, according to a second Monday JSO release.
JMSDF destroyer JS Kirisame (DD-104) shadowed the PLAN ships, according to the release. The Yushen class is a big deck landing helicopter dock ship with three ships commissioned into service between 2021-2022 with a fourth expected to enter service soon.
This is the second time Japan announced a sighting of the Yushen class around Japanese waters. The first was in June 2023.
