USS Mahan Participates in SUBFAM Exercise

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW) Daniel Gay, Naval Public Affairs Support Element East Detachment Southeast

June 9, 2010 - USS MAHAN, At Sea (NNS) -- USS Mahan (DDG 72) participated in a submarine familiarization (SUBFAM) exercise June 5 as part of the Southeast Anti-Submarine Warfare Integration Training Initiative (SEASWITI) exercise 10-3, held June 4-11 off the eastern coast of Florida.

The exercise gave watchstanders a chance to see and track a submarine in a variety of conditions.

"This is an opportunity for our watch standers to become familiar with what they might see if there really was a submarine out there," said Cmdr. Kurt Mondlak, Mahan's commanding officer.

Mahan's watchstanders routinely train for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) but getting up close and personal with a real submarine doesn't happen too often.

"This kind of training is pretty cool," said Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Robert Dannheim. "We actually got to see a sub come to the surface and watch it submerge and that's not something we see very often."

Mondlak said that the exercise is about more than just seeing the submarine. "This is definitely not something we get to do every day, and it's important because this lets the lookouts see a sub in many different configurations, periscope up, operation of different antennas, and it also shows them what to look for when the sub submerges."

Mahan's commanding officer also explained why this type of training is important.

"This is valuable training and is better training for the lookouts than studying pictures," said Mondlak "There are different dynamic properties involved, like seeing the different wakes the sub makes, which is something that you just can't get from pictures."

The importance of the SUBFAM training was not lost on the lookouts.

"I feel confident that if I was standing a watch, this training would definitely help me know what I was looking for so I could respond faster and in the right way," said Dannheim.

The SUBFAM exercise was part of SEASWITI 10-3, an exercise where ships from several different countries are working together to improve their ASW readiness and proficiency.