NavNews  02 June 2000

NNS2303. USS Kitty Hawk /CVW-5 completes Cobra Gold 2000
By USS Kitty Hawk Public Affairs staff


    USS KITTY HAWK, At Sea (NNS) - Wrapping up an intense
four days filled with nearly non-stop flight operations, USS
Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 recently
completed their participation in Exercise Cobra Gold 2000.
    From May 9-23, Exercise Cobra Gold 2000 tested the U.S.
and Thai military to ensure regional peace. It also
strengthened the ability of the Royal Thai armed forces to
defend themselves and respond to regional contingencies.
This annual joint exercise was one of the largest military
exercises involving U.S. forces in the Pacific Command this
year, and it involved units from the Thai and U.S. Air
Force, Army, Navy and Marines. Armed forces from Singapore
also participated for the first time this year.
    Aircraft from CVW-5, permanently embarked aboard Kitty
Hawk and based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan,
completed approximately 500 sorties, including a mix of air-
to-air and air-to-ground training missions.
    In addition to flying off the deck of Kitty Hawk, CVW-5
operated F/A-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats from Korat Royal
Thai Air Force Base, approximately 165 miles northeast of
Bangkok. These aircraft acted as aggressor forces,
conducting local strike training exercises on Chandy and Bon
Chan Kren inert ranges in Thailand. CVW-5 aircraft also
provided air-to-air training with squadrons from Singapore,
Thailand, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps.
    "Our Hornets flew 36 sorties with the Royal Thai Navy,"
said Lt. j.g. David Baird of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA)
195, from Madison, N.J. "It was a great opportunity to train
with them and their F-16, F-5 and L-39 aircraft."
    Keeping an eye on all the action, Carrier Airborne Early
Warning Squadron (VAW) 115's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft provided
critical data about incoming "enemy" aircraft to the pilots,
the ship and the rest of the battle group.
    "Our role in Cobra Gold was to intercept, control and
provide early warning location and identification on
simulated hostile aircraft," said VAW-115's Lt. Cmdr. Jim
Byerly of Fresno, Calif.
    "We flew from one end of the range to the other looking
for Thai aircraft playing the role of the opposition," said
Byerly, a mission commander in the Airborne Command and
Control Center during Cobra Gold 2000.
    The squadron's efforts complemented those of Kitty
Hawk's Combat Direction Center (CDC), which served as the
Hawk's eyes and ears as they worked around the clock to keep
the ship up to date on the tactical scene.
    "Combat Direction Center was responsible for air traffic
control for up to nine overland missions a day during Cobra
Gold," said Chief Operations Specialist(SW/AW) Patrick
Rivers, the CDC leading chief petty officer from Albany,
N.Y. "After completing their missions, the planes would turn
around and simulate hostile contacts. It was our job to
detect, identify and track all of the inbound hostile
forces."
    Tracking simulated attacks and coordinating counter
strikes was only part of CDC's mission. Passing on the "big
picture" to the fleet made up the rest.
    "One of the key parts of our job was the battle group
communications links," said Operations Specialist 2nd Class
Michael Hester of Chattanooga, Tenn.
    "Once we identified the aircraft, we passed the
information to the rest of the fleet," said Rivers. "To do
that we had to keep in constant communications with the
battle group. We kept the entire battle group up-to-date
with the exact location of each contact we had."
    Rear Adm. Timothy J. Keating, Task Force 70's commander
embarked aboard Kitty Hawk, said Exercise Cobra Gold 2000
provided an excellent opportunity for America's only
permanently forward-deployed battle group to effectively
test their mission readiness.
    "Cobra Gold was great training for everyone all around,"
said Keating. "We were able to do a lot of training for the
Hawk/FIVE team, as well as exercise with the Thai and
Singapore navies. It was great for the air wing because of
availability of some target facilities that aren't available
in Atsugi, and great for the Kitty Hawk's crew because they
got to put their battle skills to the test in this important
region of the world."
    Kitty Hawk, operating from Yokosuka, Japan, is on a
regularly scheduled two-month deployment to the Western
Pacific Ocean. Accompanying Kitty Hawk is the guided missile
cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) and the destroyer USS
O'Brien (DD 975), operating from Yokosuka, Japan.
    For more information about the USS Kitty Hawk/CVW-5
team, go to http://www.kittyhawk.navy.mil.
    For more information about USS O'Brien, go to
http://www.obrien.navy.mil.
                            -USN-