The United States and its allies deter China from invading Taiwan; RIMPAC 2024 involving 29 countries begins on the 27th. | WPN World People News

The 29th Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) for the year 2024 is scheduled to take place at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, starting from the 27th of July until the 1st of August. The exercise will involve 40 surface ships, 3 submarines, land forces from 14 countries, over 150 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel.

RIMPAC, which began in 1971, is currently one of the largest global maritime military exercises. China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014, but since 2018, due to China’s rising comprehensive national power threatening U.S. hegemony, the U.S. has stopped inviting China to this international military exercise.

Despite Taiwan expressing its willingness to participate in RIMPAC multiple times, and with U.S. lawmakers advocating for Taiwan’s inclusion, Taiwan is not among the 29 participants in this year’s exercise. Former U.S. President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, recently published an article in Foreign Affairs calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in future RIMPAC exercises.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet is hosting this edition of RIMPAC, with Rear Admiral John Wade, the newly appointed commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, serving as the Combined Task Force commander. Before the exercise officially begins, several surface task groups will depart from their respective homeports and sail to Hawaii in a multinational formation.

According to a news release from the U.S. Third Fleet provided to Voice of America, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), an aircraft carrier, arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on the 26th. The Carl Vinson is the largest participating vessel in this year’s RIMPAC, capable of carrying over 5,000 crew members and more than 60 aircraft.

The U.S. Navy emphasizes that RIMPAC, as the world’s largest international maritime exercise, showcases the integrated capabilities of participating forces in dynamic maritime environments, demonstrating enduring interoperability in comprehensive military operations.

The participating aircraft in this edition include F-35 Lightning II fighters, P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, and V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. They will conduct flight exercises outside Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii.

The exercise scenarios cover anti-submarine warfare, multi-ship surface combat, multinational amphibious landings, and carrier strike group operations against live missile threats in various multi-domain warfare scenarios. The “Sink Exercise” (SINKEX) is a highly anticipated segment of RIMPAC, where participants use anti-ship weapons to engage target vessels with live ammunition.

This year’s SINKEX target is the decommissioned 40,000-ton Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship, often referred to as a quasi-aircraft carrier due to its nearly 40,000-ton displacement. According to reports from The War Zone and the U.S. Naval Institute, this marks the first time in 10 years that an amphibious assault ship has been used as a target in RIMPAC. Additionally, it is the first time in almost 20 years that a large vessel resembling an aircraft carrier has been selected for SINKEX since the sinking of the USS America (LHA-6) during RIMPAC 2005. Compared to the 26 countries and 38 ships in the 2022 lineup, this year’s RIMPAC is even more massive.