Royal Australian Navy landing helicopter dock HMAS Adelaide is making final preparations for a three-month deployment which will include participation in RIMPAC, the world’s largest international maritime exercise taking place off Hawaii.
Adelaide’s journey across the South Pacific to Hawaii and back is called Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2018 (IPE18) and represents the second iteration of the Indo-Pacific Endeavour activity which concluded in late 2017 .
Last year’s IPE was conducted by a total of six RAN ships with Adelaide serving as the flagship.
IPE18 begins at the end of May and HMAS Adelaide’s Commanding Officer, CAPT Jonathan Earley says his crew are making final preparations for the journey.
“We are very excited to be deploying again on this important activity in our region, having successfully deployed to South East Asia in 2017,” CAPT Earley said.
“For IPE18, we will also be participating in RIMPAC 2018 mid-deployment working with more than a dozen navies from around the Pacific. There is much to do before we get underway and my team is working hard to make sure we are ship shape for the journey.”
With that in mind, nothing has been left to chance. The LHD even took advantage of a routine maintenance period for a spell in dry dock at Fleet Base East, emerging last week with a clean bill of health. HMAS Adelaide will spend the coming weeks loading stores, personnel and equipment.
“We are in great shape and morale is excellent,” CAPT Earley said.
“Everyone on board understands how important IPE is, not just to Navy but to Australia’s regional interests too.”