Thread by @alessionaval

Aloha Twitter. Day 3 #RIMPAC2022 experience: today it was partners focus for me. I promised yesterday more on the exercise and some pretty pics and hopefully I won’t disappoint you. A thread on the largest multilateral exercise in the Indo-Pacific and what it means for partners:

1. An inclusive framework. From a Euro Atlantic perspective, informed by NATO formats for exercises, RIMPAC is less scripted, has different components, and a rather ‘tailor to your needs’ approach. This might sound like a constraint, but it is in fact a key element of appeal:

RIMPAC is inclusive as a framework as it allows different national objectives to find their affirmation.
2. A honing the skills opportunity. Whether because of its scale, its large number of participants, or indeed the diverse training opportunities, RIMPAC has great value.

It has the attractiveness of providing a major opportunity to build skills, training skills, and refine skills. In so doing though, assets and people achieve other wider diplomatic objectives too.
3. Better together. Again, in NATO, permanent structures create opportunities.

In the Indo-Pacific, the same doesn’t exist, so the social port phase activities matter. You get to know people. Procedures.
Practices. Cultures. That’s invaluable in a region in which the same type of professional proximity is hard to get otherwise.

4. Europe goes Indo-Pacific. First meeting today was on Prarial (F731), the French navy Fregate de Surveillance based in Tahiti. Needless to say, the wardroom felt inevitably ‘European’ and so did the coffee. Nothing like feeling ‘home’ at the other end of the world.

A brilliant piece of kit. Commissioned in 1993, this is now a venerable ship but still one kept to the best standards, and feeling very much in her ‘prime’. The larger calibre for the naval gun - compared to an OPV - and the helo hangar at the back do provide unique flex.

The ship feels also very much an asset on which crew and officers have a strong IP experience. This is Europe at its top form, because it is inherently part of the regional fabric.

5. Beauty and the beast. Going around the piers one couldn’t help noticing the ironing of mooring the JMSDF Takanami next to an LCS. An image is worth a thousand words… here it was just unfair to get a DD superbly kept and with lovey lines next to… well. Let’s not dwell.

6. Japan’s growing leadership role. After a number of other meetings, the last visit of the day was to JDS Izumo, DDH183. What. A. Warship. Spotless. Impressive. And for someone who’s very familiar with Hyuga… this is much, much bigger. A lot more.

An F-35B platform. Senior officers refreshingly comfortable to speak about the F-35B future of this ship, and elevators, air operations control tower, accommodations, deck, logistics, hangars, all near the marks of a design that was always meant to keep the option open.

Yet, with the first take off and landing test last year, the ships has now the physical marks of a transformation. The yellow stripe marking the take off and landing area, and the white/red line separating the flight deck from the parking space.

My favourite pic of the day. The mark of the exact spot where the first F-35b landed on Izumo. Something that reminded me of religious iconography, but then if you’re Japan you don’t get to come back to carrier aviation business everyday. So, I get it. And I loved it.

In all, another intense day learning and comparing. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect was how the nuances of different partners about the value of this experience didn’t provide dissonance. Rather, it reinforced the ex’s value.
More tomorrow. Stay tuned. And thanks!