Three navies top up missiles in the north
Australian Naval Institute
28 September 2024
HMCS Vancouver
On 25 September it was announced that in a first, warships from the Australia, Canada and the US were ammunitioned with vertical launched Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles in northern Australia.
The ships were the frigate HMAS Warramunga, the destroyer USS Dewey and the frigate HMCS Vancouver. The first two ships conducted the evolution in Darwin whilst Vancouver was rearmed in Broome.
On board the ships and along the wharf, in Darwin were specialist teams made up of representatives from the US Navy, NT Government, Port of Darwin, Thales and Linx, plus experts from more than ten US and Australian Army and Navy ordnance and munitions commands, executed a re-arming plan that took months to develop.
Afterwards, the Dewey’s Commanding Officer, Commander Nicholas Maruca said, “The ability to go to other places (like Darwin) gives us the quick reaction of reloading; so that if conflict were to erupt, being able to go to various locations around the Indo-Pacific makes it faster to get back on the field to support operations,”
The Commander of the Canadian Pacific Fleet, Commodore David Mazur, said that for Canada it was about being able to deploy forward and sustain.
“We have been deploying for many years to this region and we have logistics and personnel movements and fuelling squared-off. We want to make sure, on the higher end of the warfighting spectrum, if anything ever required it, that we are able to do this overseas.
This is the furthest forward we have ever done it.”
Sources: RAN, RCN & USN