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VP-9 ‘Flexes Muscles' During RIMPAC SINKEX
Story Number: NNS020723-04
Release Date: 7/23/2002 9:46:00 AM
By Journalist 2nd Class Phil Hasenkamp, Weapons Tactics Unit West Public Affairs
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- These days, if you want to sink a ship, it’s probably a good idea to have powerful, reliable weapons at your disposal.
Aircraft from Patrol Squadron 9 (VP-9), stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, flexed their muscles recently, striking the ex-USS Rathburne (FF 1057) with two AGM-84D Harpoon missiles in an exercise near the island of Kauai.
But firing an $800,000 cruise missile is a privilege, not a right.
Two combat air crews (CAC) earned the opportunity to fire the Harpoons during an “anti-submarine warfare rodeo” held a month before the shoot.
Operating in a training simulator at the headquarters of the Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Force Pacific, the nine aircrews of VP-9 were pitted against each other in a competition to track and attack submarines. CAC-1 and CAC-9 emerged victorious and started planning a trip to Pacific Missile Range Facility on the southwest coast of Kauai.
“We were basically told that we were going to be shooting as part of RIMPAC, and that our target was going to be an old frigate,” said Lieutenant Eric A. Schuchard. “From there they told us the basic angles and the range we would be shooting from. For safety reasons they also told us the distance they wanted us to shoot from.
RIMPAC is the multi-national “Rim of the Pacific” maritime exercise, currently being held on land and in waters of the 50th state.
Armed with the scoop on what they would be shooting at, the aircrews could be prepared to arm their P-3 with missiles.
Before the shoot, a notice was put out to mariners requiring them to be 35 nautical miles away from the target in the waters off PMRF. As a safety precaution the P-3 crews spent more than two hours making sure the range was clear before they let the missiles fly.
“There is a lot of safety involved when shooting a Harpoon missile. Basically we flew around to make sure all of the fishing vessels and ‘friendlies’ were out of the area,” said Lieutenant Jason Wood, a patrol plane commander at VP-9.
Dubbed a “fire and forget” missile, the AGM-84D Harpoon had its Navy debut in 1977 and was first fired almost exclusively from surface ships. In 1979, the versatile weapons were deployed on P-3s for the first time, and are now launched from a variety of platforms, including submarines and Air Force B-52Gs. As a cruise missile, the Harpoon has active radar guidance and skims the surface of the ocean towards its target at high speed.
The ex-Rathburne never had a chance.
VP-9’s P-3 approached its 3,100-ton, 438-foot target at 300 knots, and fired the first of two shots from 20 miles away. “We followed the missile in to get some bomb damage assessment – to see what our missile did to the ship. We got to see it all,” Wood said.
The missile blasted through the hull at the starboard-aft quarter near the waterline. The concussion blew the steel doors off the ship’s hangar. “It was pretty impressive. It’s not every day you get to do that. It was like Fourth of July fireworks,” Schuchard said. “There was a large explosion on the first hit, and a lot of smoke followed.”
For the second hit, CAC-1 replaced CAC-9 at the controls.
This time the Harpoon pierced into Rathburne off the bow and exploded inside the skin of the ship. “I’d like to think it took out the [Combat Information Center],” said Lieutenant Commander Jody Bridges, a patrol plane commander for VP-9.
In addition to showing the effectiveness of Harpoon missiles, the exercise further demonstrated the versatility of the P-3C Orion.
“We’re probably going to be called on to do more varying types of missions in the future,” said Lieutenant Gabriele Rodriguez, a tactical coordinator (TACCO) for VP-9. “Before P-3 crews were primarily [used for] anti-submarine warfare, but now we’re used to performing a more diverse array of missions like surveillance.”
The seamless success of the mission was also a welcome aspect. “We didn’t have to do any emergency procedures, so that was nice. It was easier than I thought it was going to be,” Schuchard said. “Sometimes you study and study for this kind of stuff and you think, ‘I’m never going to get a chance to shoot this.’ But it works as advertised,” he added.
To its credit, the crew-less ex-Rathburne stayed afloat after the two disabling missile attacks. It was later sunk by naval gunfire from various units participating in RIMPAC.
For more news from Naval Region Hawaii, go to www.news.navy.mil/local/cnrh.
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