10 terrible attack that blasts u.s navy ship. ships and aircraft from 10
nations participating in the rim of the pacific exercise sank the former
amphibious cargo ship in a dramatic live fire exercise august 30th,
according to navy releases.
Durham, a charleston class amphibious cargo ship entered service in 1969 and
was decommissioned after 24 years in 1994.
The 575 foot 10,000-ton ship which deployed in support of the Vietnam and
Gulf War conflicts was stricken from the naval vessel register in 2015 and
has since awaited disposal at the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii naval and active ship
maintenance facility.
The sinking exercises or SINKEX with former u.s navy warships are a regular
part of rimpac, the world's largest biennial international maritime warfare
exercise.
This year the exercise involved 10 nations, 22 ships one submarine and
approximately 5 300 personnel. it was held august 17 to 31 near the hawaiian
islands.
SINKEX is aimed to develop proficiency and confidence in various weapons and
systems for participating units through realistic training that could not be
duplicated in simulators, a navy release states.
Simulation is a critical part of our training but there is nothing better
than to conduct live fire training, royal australian navy captain philippa
haye commander rimpac 2020 task force one said in a statement.
Sinking exercises are an important way to test our weapons and weapon
systems in the most realistic way possible. It demonstrates as a joint force
we are capable of high-end warfare.
Former navy warships designated for sinking, known as hulks are prepared
strictly under environmental protection agency regulations and in line with
the marine protection, research and sanctuaries act, officials said.
Each hulk is sunk in at least one thousand fathoms or six thousand feet of
water and at least 50 nautical miles from land, with surveys that ensure
people and marine mammals are out of the dangerous area during the exercise,
according to the navy.
The navy said each vessel also undergoes a rigorous cleaning process to
remove any harmful chemicals, particularly liquid polychlorinated biphenyls
PCBs from transformers, large capacitors and small capacitors and to get rid
of all trash, floatable materials, mercury or fluorocarbon containing
materials and readily detachable solid PCB items.
petroleum is also cleaned from tanks piping and reservoirs. additionally a
navy environmental safety and health manager and a quality assurance
supervisor take responsibility for environmental remediation following a
SINKEX.
Upon completion of the environmental remediation, the manager and
supervisor provide signed certification of the work under EPA requirements
