The combined forces of five navies sailed from Pearl Harbor and HMAS ONSLOW stealthily moved into position.

ONSLOW had sailed from Pearl Harbor a day earlier with the mission to attack shipping as it departed from Pearl Harbor during the fleet break-out.

But ONSLOW (LCDR Sean O'Dwyer) didn't just choose just any of the ship to attack, instead the Australian submarine went for the biggest ship in the exercise, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS CARL VINSON.

ONSLOW sneaks a photo through her periscope of the USS CARL VINSON, moments before her successful attack.

"We set ourselves up right across from where we believed the CARL VINSON would transit," LCDR Tim Brown, Executive Officer of ONSLOW, said.

"At 0930 we detected CARL VINSON on our sonar moving out of Pearl Harbour. We manoeuvred into position, getting within 300 yards and attacked by releasing four green grenades."

To the submariners' delight the CARL VINSON was taken by surprise, increasing her speed in an attempt to escape. For ONSLOW the attempt was even more satisfying in the knowledge that the highest-ranking Australian on exercise CDRE Shalders, was also embarked on CARL VINSON as the Sea Combat Commodore.

"It's not often you get a chance to attack a Nimitz class aircraft carrier," Fraser Vergelus, the ONSLOW Sonar Officer said.

ONSLOW continues her success during Exercise Lungfish, the Australian and United States submarine exercise conducted south of Lanai Island in the Hawaiian group, proved a complete success.

The exercise pitted the Australian conventional submarine against the US Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine USS BUFFALO. It was the first time it had been conducted away from Australian waters.

"Usually the exercise is conducted off western Australia but this year the exercise emphasis was on littoral (shallow water) operations whereas in previous years the exercise has had a deep water emphasis," ONSLOW's Executive Officer, LCDR Tim Brown said. The move to Hawaii enabled ONSLOW to use the Pacific Mile Range Facility at Kauai where she was able to achieve 100 per cent success rate in her torpedo firings.

"We got two firings and two hits," LEUT Fraser Vergelus, the submarine's sonar officer, said. "ONSLOW proved extremely quiet and extremely capable against BUFFALO," he said. It is the eighth year that the RAN has taken part in the various submarine exercise. The exercise also featured involvement from the USA, Canadian and Australian Air Forces' P3C Orion aircraft.

By Graham Davis