USA: Unit to Conduct ULTRA During Rim of the Pacific 2012 Exercise

Active duty and reserve Sailors from Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron (MSRON) 9 look to retest their skills as a cohesive organization in a Unit Level Training and Readiness Assessment (ULTRA) during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012 exercise July 21.

During ULTRA, Maritime Expeditionary Security Group (MESG) 1 will evaluate MSRON 9’s command training team (CTT) in its ability to effectively train its personnel. MESG 1 will use RIMPAC events as the scenarios to do that.

“We all know the RIMPAC scenarios,” said Lt. Chris Miller, MSRON 9 assistant operations officer. “But what we don’t know is what drills MESG 1 has written into those scenarios.”

For the past year, MSRON 9 has tailored its training specifically for ULTRA and RIMPAC through customized field exercise and scenarios.

“We have three weeks during RIMPAC to showcase our abilities to the CTT members and MESG 1,” said MSRON 9 Commanding Officer Capt. William Anderson. “This is our opportunity to prove to ourselves that we are trained and capable to deploy and that we are capable of training ourselves for future missions.”

Although MSRON 9 is here for ULTRA, they are also here to support Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 1 as part of the Navy Expeditionary Security Force, and to participate in the tactical and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) exercise within the larger RIMPAC exercise.

“Our primary mission for the HA/DR exercise is to provide command-and-control support to Combined Task Force (CTF) 11,” said Miller. “CTF 11 will play the role of the military leader on the island as part of the scenario.”

MSRON 9 is a rapidly deployable unit that can operate anywhere in the world. The squadron is responsible for port security and harbor defense, coordinating shore and force protection for ships in transit through ports, and providing security for high value assets in harbors and littoral waters. The squadron also conducts surveillance and waterborne interdiction.

“MSRON 9 is a small, but very hard working component of full time support staff and selective reserves,” said Anderson. “Its fascinating to see the amount of devotion that people have to an organization such as MSRON 9 and that they are willing to put in the extra time to come out for three weeks to do a extensive mission such as RIMPAC.”

This year’s RIMPAC exercise includes units or personnel from Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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Naval Today Staff, July 19, 2012; Image: US Navy