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By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Mark Logico, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise officially kicked off June 23 as 14 nations, 32 ships, five submarines, more than 170 aircraft, and 20,000 personnel arrived in Hawaii.

By June 28, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) will be hosting units and personnel from Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

Adm. Patrick Walsh, PACFLT, and Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, Commander, Combined Task Force, are scheduled to officially open the exercise with a press conference June 28 at 9:30 a.m. on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

The world's largest multinational maritime exercise, takes place from June 23 through Aug. 1 in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands. The exercise consists of three major phases. Phase I, the Harbor Phase, from June 28 through July 5 will consist of operational planning meetings, safety briefings and sporting events. This phase is designed to make final preparations for the at-sea phases of the exercises, as well as build on professional and personal relationships between the participating countries.

Phase II, the Operational Phase, driven by a structured schedule of events, starts July 6 and continues through July 24. This portion includes live fire gunnery and missile exercises, maritime interdiction and vessel boardings, anti-surface warfare, undersea warfare, and naval maneuvers, air defense exercises, as well as, explosive ordnance disposal, diving and salvage operations, mine clearance operations, and an amphibious landing. This phase exercises the ability of each nation to conduct robust command and control operations with multinational players and enhances each unit's operational capabilities.

Phase III, the Tactical Phase of the exercise, is scenario-driven and takes place July 25 through July 30. The intense training during this phase allows participating nations to further strengthen their maritime skills and capabilities and improve their ability to communicate and operate in simulated hostile scenarios. This phase concludes with the ships' return to Pearl Harbor, where participating nations will reconvene to discuss the exercise and overall accomplishments.

RIMPAC 2010 is themed "Combined Agility, Synergy and Support," and marks the 22nd exercise in the series that originated in 1971.

For more news from Commander, Navy Region Hawaii, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnrh/.