Back from PANAMAX 2007

Floreat regina:

Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Regina returns today after 62 days away from home. Regina is returning from PANAMAX 2007, an annual joint multinational exercise. PANAMAX 2007 involved multinational forces cooperating in a crisis response scenario to counter a maritime-based threat to the Panama Canal, through which a significant portion of the world’s trade passes daily. Exercise forces deployed on both sides of the Isthmus of Panama and conducted a range of joint coalition activities including command and control, surveillance and monitoring, and naval boarding operations.

HMCS Regina was one of 33 warships, 32 aircraft and 7,500 personnel from 16 countries in the annual international exercise. “Languages and cultural differences are two hurdles in these types of exercises,” said Cmdr. Yvan Couture, Commanding Officer of HMCS Regina. “But Canada has an excellent reputation for multinational cooperation and Regina’s work was very well received by our international counterparts throughout the exercise.”

With the cooperation of two other navies, HMCS Regina’s CH-124 Sea King helicopter made a seven-hour flight between continents during the exercise, flying over 600 nautical miles. The Sea King left Regina for USS Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean, where it refuelled before continuing on to USS Wasp in the Caribbean Sea, where the Sea King refuelled again. After the Canadian helicopter’s fuel tanks were topped off, the crew picked up Canadian passengers from the Dutch frigate Van Nes and flew back to Regina, making one last refuelling stop on the USS Pearl Harbor.

Canada’s Halifax-Class frigates are welcome additions to any coalition naval force because of their modern communications, sensors, and weapons systems. At 134-metres in length and 4,750 tonnes, these frigates are considered by Canada's allies as the most capable ships of their size in the world. HMCS Regina and her 11 sister ships are equipped with Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Sea Sparrow air-defence missiles, torpedoes, a 57-mm deck gun, and a 20-mm Phalanx close-in weapon system. Driven by two gas turbines and a cruise diesel engine, these frigates have a range of 7,100 nautical miles and can cross the Pacific without refuelling.