The Cyclone-class coastal patrol ship USS Monsoon (PC4) departed Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia Beach, Va. Feb. 27, beginning the next phase of pre-deployment training exercises.
Monsoon’s theater tailored Advanced Phase Training Exercise (APTEX) is a four-day training scenario in the greater Chesapeake Bay area. The exercise is designed to stress and evaluate the U.S. Navy Patrol Coastal crew in an integrated and advanced level environment, and to evaluate the crew’s ability to complete exercise objectives and demonstrate the ships ability to work and communicate as a team.
“This exercise tests our ability to be able to respond to a dynamic threat environment, to coordinate operations with other ships and make sure crewmembers are proficient and ready to execute any number of missions before they are able to deploy,” said Lt. Cmdr. Casey Baker, PC Squadron 1 operations officer.
APTEX scenario events consist of live-fire exercises, small boat attacks, visit, board, search and seizure, detainee handling, man overboard drills, search and rescue drills, actionable intelligence operations and hostage recovery simulations.
All training and exercises will be performed and conducted with the help of local civil authorities to include: Norfolk’s Harbor Patrol, Police Department, Fire Department, Bomb Squad, Virginia Port Authority and Virginia State Police.
“When you get overseas, sometimes you have to coordinate operations with host nation’s local law enforcement, civil authorities or possibly with another nation’s navy,” said Baker. “Being able to work with our local law enforcement units gives us the chance to operate with other entities that are not necessarily U.S. Navy and it helps us flex and will make us able handle those sorts of operations with the utmost proficiency.”
PCRON ONE is responsible for 13 PC ships, 13 rotational PC crews and four maintenance readiness teams. The primary responsibility of a PC is to operate in open seas and littoral environments serving as a force enabler for numbered fleet commanders.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, March 4, 2013