NMFS Biological Opinion on U.S. Navy training ... - Govsupport.us

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FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013 laws and sanctions. These exercises requires a cooperative surface ship. The typical duration of these operations is approximately between 1 and 2 hours. The U.S. Navy plans to conduct about 66 visit, board, search, and seizure training events each year in the Hawai'i Range Complex, which is an increase from the 60 of these training events conducted under current schedules. Surface-to-Surface Gunnery Exercise. Surface gunnery exercises take place in the open ocean to provide gunnery practice for Navy and Coast Guard ship crews. Surface-to-surface training operations conducted in the Offshore Operating Area involve stationary targets such as a MK-42 Floating At Sea Target or a MK-58 marker (smoke) buoy. Gunnery Exercises last about 1 to 2 hours, depending on target services and weather conditions. The gun systems employed against surface targets include the 5-inch, 76-millimeter (mm), 25 mm chain gun, 20-mm Close In Weapon System, and .50-caliber machine gun. A single gunnery exercise will typically expend a minimum of 21 rounds of 5-inch or 76-mm ammunition, and about 150 rounds of 25-mm or .50-caliber ammunition. Both live and inert training rounds are used. After impacting the water, the rounds and fragments sink to the bottom of the ocean and those targets that are not destroyed are removed. The Navy plans to introduce three new rounds of 5-inch gun ordnance to the Fleet. A High Explosive Electronically Timed Projectile is a standard High Explosive round with an improved electronically timed fuse. A Kinetic Energy Projectile, commonly called the “BB” round, contains 9,000 tungsten pellets and is designed to be fired down a bearing at incoming boats. A EX-171 Extended Range Guided Munition projectile is a major component of the Navy’s littoral warfare concept. The 5-inch, rocket-assisted projectile is capable of carrying a 4-caliber submunition, and are typically fired from the new 5-inch, 62-caliber gun being installed on Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers. The U.S. Navy plans to conduct about 91 surface-to-surface gunnery exercises each year in the Hawai'i Range Complex, which is an increase from the 69 exercises conducted under current schedules. Surface-to-Surface Missile Exercises. A surface-to-surface missile exercise involve the attack of surface targets at sea by use of cruise missiles or other missile systems, usually by a single ship conducting training in the detection, classification, tracking and engagement of a surface target. Engagement is usually with surface-to-surface Harpoon missiles or Standard missiles. Targets include virtual targets or the seaborne powered target or ship deployed surface target. A surface-to-surface missile exercise includes 4 to 20 surface-to-surface missiles, SEPTARs, a weapons recovery boat, and a helicopter for environmental and photo evaluation. All missiles are equipped with instrumentation packages or a warhead. Surface-to-air missiles can also be used in a surface-to-surface mode. The activities associated with surface-to-surface missile exercises are conducted within PMRF Warning Area W-188. In the past, these exercises have typically lasted about 5 hours, but future exercises could last between 4 to 35 hours. The U.S. Navy plans to conduct about 12 surface-to-surface missile exercises each year in the Hawai'i Range Complex, which is an increase from the 7 exercises conducted under current schedules. 22
FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013 Air-to-Surface Gunnery Exercise. Air-to-Surface gunnery exercise operations are conducted by aircraft against stationary targets (FAST and smoke buoy). Aircraft involved in this operation include a single SH-60 using either 7.62-mm or .50-caliber door-mounted machine guns. A typical Gunnery Exercise lasts about 1 hour and involves the expenditure of about 400 rounds of 20 mm, 0.50-caliber, or 7.62-mm ammunition. the U.S. Navy plans to conduct about 152 air-to-surface gunnery exercises each year in the Hawai'i Range Complex, which is an increase from the 128 exercises conducted under current schedules. Anti-Submarine Warfare Tracking Exercise. Anti-submarine warfare tracking exercises train aircraft, ship, and submarine crews in the tactics, techniques, and procedures used to search for, detect, and track submarines. Antisubmarine warfare tracking exercises include ships, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, torpedo targets, 1 to 10 submarines, and weapons recovery boats or helicopters. As a unit-level exercise, an aircraft, ship, or submarine is typically used versus one target submarine or simulated target. The target may be non-evading while operating on a specified track or it may be fully evasive, depending on the state of training of an anti-submarine warfare unit. No torpedoes are fired during these tracking exercises. The duration of anti-submarine warfare tracking exercises depends on the tracking platform and its available onstation time. A maritime patrol aircraft can remain on station for 8 hours, and typically conducts tracking exercises that last 3 to 6 hours. An Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopter has a much shorter on-station time, and conducts a typical tracking exercise in 1 to 2 hours. Surface ships and submarines, which measure their on-station time in days, conduct tracking exercises exceeding 8 hours and averaging up to 18 hours. Anti-submarine warfare tracking exercises are conducted on ranges within PMRF Warning Area W-188, the Hawai’i Offshore Areas or the open ocean. Whenever aircraft use the ranges for antisubmarine warfare training, range clearance procedures include a detailed visual range search for marine mammals and unauthorized boats and planes by the aircraft releasing the inert torpedoes, range safety boats/aircraft, and range controllers. Sensors used during ASW events include sonars, non-acoustic sensors such as radars, and airborne early warning radars. The use of sonobuoys is generally limited to areas greater than 100 fathoms, or 600 feet, in depth. Before dropping sonobuoys, the crew visually determines that the area is clear. When the sonobuoy is released, a small parachute (about 4 feet in diameter) retards its entry into the ocean. The sonobuoy is designed to float on the surface and, after a controlled period of time (no longer than 8 hours), the complete package (with the parachute) sinks to the bottom. The U.S. Navy plans to conduct about 372 anti-submarine warfare tracking exercises each year in the Hawai'i Range Complex. Bombing Exercise at sea. Fixed-wing aircraft conduct (which the Navy abbreviates as BOMBEX [Sea]) operations against stationary targets (MK-42 FAST or MK-58 smoke buoy) at sea. An aircraft clears the area, deploys a smoke buoy or other floating target, and then sets up a racetrack pattern, dropping on the target with each pass. At Pacific Missile Range Facility, a range boat might be used to deploy the target for an aircraft to attack. 23
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