HMCS Vancouver Conducts RAS with HMNZS Aotearoa During RIMPAC 2022

18 Juli 2022

Replenishment at sea between HMNZS Aotearoa and Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) (all photos : DVIDS)

PACIFIC OCEAN -- Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) conducts a replenishment-at-sea with Royal New Zealand Navy auxiliary oiler replenishment ship HMNZS Aotearoa (A 11) during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, Jul 14.

HMNZS Aotearoa (A 11), is an auxiliary ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Builder Hyundai Heavy Industries delivered the ship to the Navy in June 2020, and she was commissioned into service on 29 July 2020. Full operational capability was expected to be achieved in 2021. It will serve as a replenishment oiler, and has replaced HMNZS Endeavour, the Navy’s last fleet oiler, which was decommissioned in December 2017.

Twenty-six nations, 38 surface ships, four submarines, nine national land forces, more than 30 unmanned systems, approximately 170 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel will train and operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California, June 29 to Aug. 4.

The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans.

RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

(DVIDS)