RIMPAC 2008 builds trust between nations

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chris Vadnais
  • AFN Hawaii
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) --  A multinational team is providing command and control of air and space forces for Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2008 from Hickam's 613th Air and Space Operations Center. But perhaps more importantly, the team is building relationships.

Coordinating all airpower in the world's largest biennial maritime exercise is certainly a complex task. RIMPAC 2008 employs more than 20,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coastguardsmen. The only thing more difficult may be trying to do that side-by-side with people you have never met--people from foreign nations.

Forces from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Republic of Korea are gathered together on the AOC floor, each with his or her own specific function related to command and control of RIMPAC air and space assets. But according to Maj. Gen. Richard Perraut, vice commander of 13th Air Force and the Combined Forces Air Component Commander for RIMPAC 2008, perhaps the most important thing that happens in the state-of-the-art command and control facility is the building of relationships between coalition forces.

"We do about 30 exercises a year, both jointly and with our partner nations," said the general. "In doing that we build relationships, we build trust and we build on a capability so that when real-world situations happen, the other nations know that we have the capability [to help]-they trust us."

RIMPAC 2008 brings forces from nine partner nations to Hawaii, and several of those nations are represented in the AOC. While each person is doing his or her part of the mission, they are also all building a foundation of trust.

Pacific partnerships are important to 13th Air Force and to U.S. Pacific Command, and building relationships rooted in trust and cooperation takes time.

"When you start working in an international environment, you do not have the trust built right from the start," said Canadian Air Force Brig. Gen. Yvan Blondin, the Deputy CFACC for RIMPAC 2008.

Working in a joint and multi-nation operation is different from deploying with one's own unit, requiring time to build understanding and trust, General Blondin said.

"You need to establish that basis before you can be effective operationally," General Blondin said. "So if you can do it in an exercise, the contacts you make [and] the understanding of other countries just makes it easier when you have to do it for real. You don't need to start from scratch."

The time and effort it takes to build relationships rooted in trust are likely to pay off in a big way, General Perraut said. When the time comes for the United States to partner with any or all of the RIMPAC 2008 nations in a real contingency, the trust formed now will be a solid foundation on which to build.

"We've built relationships; we can help them, they can help us, and it comes out to the good of all," General Perraut said.

RIMPAC 2008 runs through the end of July.