Article Posted on : - Jul 01, 2010

USS Ronald Reagan (below) and 507th Air Refueling Wing (above) will participate in RIMAPC 2010. Photo: US Navy/ Air Force

PEARL HARBOR (BNS): US Air Force has sent more than 180 reservists from the 507th Air Refueling Wing (ARW) along with four KC-135 Strato-tanker aircraft to participate in RIMPAC 2010.

The biennial exercise has started on June 23 and will continue till August 1, 2010 in the Hawaiian operating area.

The aircraft will join the US Navy to support the US Pacific Fleet exercise in July. The main deployment of the aircraft will depart for Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii on July 5. There will be a mid-July rotation to allow additional reservists to swap places in the exercise.

Most of the 507th ARW reservists and aircraft will return home by August 1.

Meanwhile, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) has arrived in Pearl Harbor to participate in the RIMPAC exercise with allied navies.

The 22nd maritime exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) was first held in 1971. It is the largest maritime event in the world which is comprised of 14 navies, 34 ships, five submarines and more than 100 aircraft and 20,000 personnel.

USS Ronald Reagan is the only aircraft carrier participating in the exercise.

"USS Ronald Reagan is a key component of RIMPAC 2010, the ability to have an aircraft carrier and carrier air wing as part of a combined coalition task force is of great benefit to the varied naval units participating,” Capt. Kenneth J. Norton, commanding officer of USS Ronald Reagan, said in an US Navy official news release.

RIMPAC offers opportunity to naval forces to hone their skills, from disaster response to anti-piracy operations, in a complex, challenging and multinational environment designed to improve cooperation, command and control operations.