Why My Ship Was Blown Up

T he United States, Australia, Canada, and Malaysia fired upon and destroyed my first sea-duty command, the former USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) (named after a Marine sergeant who protected his men in Vietnam by throwing himself on a grenade) during the ongoing RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific exercises) conducted off the Hawaiian coast. While this is an unhappy moment personally, it is worth considering the purpose of RIMPAC and the Davis’s destruction in an age of heightened Chinese naval aggression, especially given the similitude between the RMD and the Chinese 054(A)-class frigates.

The U.S. Navy biennially hosts RIMPAC in Honolulu, whereupon allied navies’ vessels converge on Oahu to train as a group and visit one another’s ships — strengthening diplomatic ties through boozing and cruising; a time-honored naval tradition.

Noteworthy allied participants this year include Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India — countries for whom Chinese expansion in the South China Sea is an exigent threat. The U.S. commander of the 3rd Fleet, who presides over the exercise, released a statement explaining the event’s official purpose:

During RIMPAC, a network of capable, adaptive partners train and operate together in order to strengthen their collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2022 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.

There are a variety of scheduled events during RIMPAC. On land, these can look like intercountry soccer tournaments or guided tours, while at sea, it’s “Kill the Carrier” via guided-missile tag and various firing exercises. The latter pair is sober; the war games are intended to increase cohesion among the diverse navies while providing the opportunity for young captains to communicate their prowess to superiors. After all, a ship’s success in the games depends not only on tactics but the mechanical readiness of the vessel to conduct stressful maneuvers and her crew’s mastery of the weapons, navigation, and intelligence systems — successful units are well-led and trained crews.

“Kill the Carrier” splits the attendees into attacking and defending forces. As particularly observant readers may have surmised, the attackers must “sink” the carrier by calling over a successful theoretical strike. At the same time, the defenders must surround the carrier and eliminate the attackers while screening out the subaquatic, surface, and air assaults on the capital ship.

The second marquee event is called SINKEX, and it is here that the ship formerly known as the USS Rodney M. Davis met its demise. If “Kill the Carrier” is a seaborne game of laser tag, SINKEX is a congenial day at the firing range — the equivalent of vaporizing a milk jug with a .44 Magnum Henry Big Boy “God Bless America” Edition Lever-Action Rifle.

A decommissioned hulk is towed out to the middle of the ocean — this year, 50 nautical miles north of Kauai — and select ships and aircraft are permitted to fire upon the hapless vessel. As one witnesses in the tweet below, multiple missiles strike the Rodney M. Davis’s starboard side, with large chunks blown out of the superstructure. Smoke envelops the ship as it sinks from the stern.

The Maritime Executive reported the composition of the missiles and their points of origin:

Units from Australia, Canada, Malaysia, and the U.S. all participated in this year’s SINKEX. Among the systems deployed against the retired vessel, the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Winnipeg fired two Harpoon missiles while a U.S. Navy  P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft deployed an AGM-84D Harpoon missile, and a F/A-18F Super Hornet from Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln launched a GBU-16 laser-guided bomb. In a first for the Royal Malaysian Navy, one of its vessels, the corvette KD Lekir also participated in SINKEX firing an Exocet MM40 missile.

The devastation of the blasts is almost as amazing as the old tub’s ability to take the hits and stay afloat. In the past, my joke to concerned family members was that I’d survive any hostile threat while aboard her because the steel on the Davis was so thin that missiles would punch through the port side and go out the starboard. However, the steel held, and it took multiple explosives to do more than bloody her.

But while displays of effervescent detonations are as entertaining as they are mesmerizing, the signaling implicit in the event makes the RMD’s end a uniquely intriguing one. China has not taken part in RIMPAC post-2016, though it has continued to send snooping vessels to shadow the war games.

Taking a moment to think about which countries were involved in the event — allies geographically proximate to China or closely aligned with us regarding China — and the target upon which they collectively fired, it seemed worthwhile to ascertain whether the Chinese navy has a similar vessel to the Oliver Hazard Perry–class of frigates, of which the RMD was one. Sure enough, the PLA Navy’s 054 and 054A frigate platforms are newer but essentially identical in form and function to the Davis. Interesting.

Recalling that SINKEX vessels have historically been decommissioned support vessels — with the amphibious Durham and Racine being the most recent sacrificial hulks and the last former warship being the USS Thatch in 2016 — I sent an information request to the RIMPAC group asking how they came to appoint the former frigate.

RIMPAC’s public-affairs officer had a prim response:

The Navy Inactive Ships Office (SEA 21I) within the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), makes available to the fleet, for SINKEX training events, decommissioned vessels that have been prepared in accordance with a General Permit (40 C.F.R. § 229.2) issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursuant to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA). For additional information on their selection process, I would direct you to their public affairs office.

Whatever the official line, RIMPAC has value as both an exercise and a way to not-so-subtly message power. While I doubt NAVSEA or the admirals will ever admit that they selected the Davis for its analogy with Chinese warships, the videos are almost certainly circulating in the offices of the PLA Navy’s Qingdao, Ningbo, and Zhanjiang fleet headquarters. And such a message, intentional or not, is a mighty fine thing.

You served admirably to the end, RMD. Fair winds and following seas.