Look To The East: Bilateral Exercises With Eastern Countries
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
The Navy’s summer series of bilateral exercises in the Pacific gave the Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) a chance to demonstrate emerging capabilities of the new platform, using its rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the first time in an operational context.
This series of exercizes, called CARAT, was held by the United States military and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Phillippines, Singapore, Thailand and West Timor. Cmdr. Christopher Brown, Fort Worth’s commanding officer, told USNI News in an email that CARAT Indonesia and CARAT Singapore were particularly good exercises for the ship’s crew.
The use of UAVs, both the U.S.’s and Singapore’s, was the highlight of CARART Singapore, which proved the value of using unmanned platforms in giving a wide maritime view of the situtation for the ship’s crew. “This is the first time that Fire Scout is operating in 7th Fleet onboard Fort Worth and also the first time that Fire Scout and the MH-60R helicopter have deployed together onboard an LCS. The addition of Fire Scout greatly expands the ship’s aviation capabilities and endurance, and provides a dedicated asset for maritime domain awareness. During CARAT Singapore, Fire Scout was used to provide over-the-horizon imagery and video of the opposing surface action group and stream the video back to Fort Worth. This capability provided Fort Worth a detailed visual of the opposing ships that a radar picture alone can’t provide.”
The 7th Fleet operates in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian ocean in collaborations with different countries in the area and is subject to American interests. U.S. military officials have stated that these exercizes offer a way to exchange tactics and discuss operation capabilities of the different countries as well as the defense concerns in the maritime field. Furthermore it is an opportunity to increase operational cooperation.
