Navy Today July 08 | Issue 134 - Royal New Zealand Navy

FLEET PROGRESSD I V I N G & M C M F O R C EDIVING & MCM FORCEWN 08-0022-27The Murena exercise mineon MANAWANUI’s dive deckJoint ops - Army Zodiacs beinglaunched over MANAWANUI’s sternBY LT MUZZ KENNETT RNZN, XOPHOTO: WN 08-0022-26“WORK HORSE” MANAWANUI is now backalongside for a spell of leave, following a busycouple of months. We have just said farewellto our CO and welcomed our new one [photosof that ceremony next month, Ed]. We hadreturned to DNB after a wide variety of tasksand operations, and we had also conductedtask book training throughout the period fortwelve Ordinary Marine Technicians. All theactivity illustrates the versatility of our ship andour company.Back in May, we commenced the period withsome harbour training followed by two weeksof diving training for the PO and Leading Divercourses. The diving training was conducted atGreat Barrier Island with the PO’s course supervisingthe daily activities of the Leading Divercourse. The training was varied and long, withmost days commencing at 0530 and endinglate into the night. The period was broken upwith a port visit to Whangarei where the shipscompany, and some very tired divers, enjoyeda weekend break.Coincidental with MANAWANUI’s visit toWhangarei was a Careers Expo held at theCivic Centre where WOSCS Reece Goldingalong with other recruiting representatives, hadestablished a display for the RNZN. To assistthem, several divers with their equipment attendedthe expo, ship visits were conductedfor potential recruits, and a ship ‘Open Day’was held Sunday afternoon which saw about50 people visit our ship.On completion of the diving, MANAWANUIenjoyed a few days alongside for maintenance,before proceeding to sea to provide a platformfor Task Group 6 training. This traininginvolved a number of joint assets, includingRNZAF Iroquois helicopters. Seeing this fromthe ‘suspects’ point of view, we all realisedthat our lives could have changed significantly,very quickly!In June, MANWANUI was back at sea conductingtrials on the new Murena Exercise Minewhich has been recently acquired by the MineCounter Measures (MCM) group. The Murenamine will be used for the evaluation of MCMequipment and procedures, also for mine threatassessment of RNZN units. It measures Magnetic,acoustic and pressure signatures and hasthe algorithms and final logic of a real war-shotmine. With the Murena mine tests successfullycompleted it was back to Devonport to preparefor Trident Warrior 08 [see sidebar].With Trident Warrior completed the shipberthed back at DNB and reconfigured, readyto receive soldiers and instructors, three ArmyZodiac inflatable boats. Once embarked, theship sailed for the Tamaki Strait where the soldierspracticed boat handling drills, includingday and night launch and recovery exercises.They were followed by the ODT who undertooktwo weeks of diving training, taking usthrough into July.TRIDENT WARRIOR 08BY LTCDR SIMON KINGSBURY PROGRAMME MANAGER (C41)Joint ops – soldiers fastroping from an RNZAF UH-1Honto MANAWANUICurrently, when away from Devonport Naval Base, all RNZN ships’ computer networks aredependant on satellite communications, regardless of whether the ship is at sea or alongside.As our Project Protector patrol vessels enter service, the increase in demand for connectivitywill lead to the limited available satellite bandwidth being shared more thinly between allour ships, increasing the chance of network congestion.To overcome this problem, it is intended to use other network communications bearerssuch as Telecom’s 3G Cellular network where they are available i.e. for ships operating incoastal waters, or alongside in NZ ports other than Devonport. This has the potential to givethese ships access to fast, relatively inexpensive data communications whilst giving otherships operating offshore a better share of satellite bandwidth.Trials conducted last year in RESOLUTION showed that the Telecom network was availableup to 30km off the coastline. MANAWANUI took those trials one step further by measuringthe connection bandwidth available at varying distances off the coast. This will allow RNZNto decide whether this is a viable data communications bearer for coastal operations.WN 08-0022-2830 NT134JULY08 WWW.NAVY.MIL.NZWWW.NAVY.MIL.NZ NT134JULY08 31