POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, HAWAII » The two big Air Force C-17 cargo carriers banked in tight turns over the West Hawaii coastline as a fictitious war was waged in the sky and on the ground.

Two A-10 attack aircraft briefly trailed after the Hickam-based cargo jets during Rim of the Pacific war games Tuesday and then darted off to strike a simulated enemy on the ground at Pohakuloa Training Area threatening the supply-drop mission.

From about 1,000 feet the crew of the C-17 named "Spirit of Kamehameha" released a small drogue parachute out the open rear cargo door and then sent 3,010 pounds of simulated cargo — the weight of a small car — hurtling out the back fast enough to leave behind a burning smell.

Twin green parachutes billowed open, slowly carrying the supplies to the ground.

"It’s a very well-orchestrated process to have the drogue chute go out and then be able to pull the extraction package off the ramp," said Master Sgt. Brian Chew­ning, a C-17 loadmaster with the 535th Airlift Squadron at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Although the seagoing part of RIMPAC gets the most attention, more than 200 aircraft are part of the airborne orchestral ensemble in the 23rd iteration of RIMPAC, and they are being used in some interesting ways. According to RIMPAC officials:

» A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, noted tank killers, participated in two "sink exercises," dropping laser-guided bombs and using their 30-mm Gatling gun against decommissioned ship targets, as well as participated in anti-submarine warfare training.

» B-52 bombers forward-deployed to Guam flew more than 18-hour round trips to Hawaii for low-level naval mining runs and to provide close-air support.

» Aging U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance and sub-hunting propeller aircraft participated in the sinking of two decommissioned ships, firing six Harpoon and six Maverick missiles.

The collaboration fits in with a relatively new integration of U.S. naval and air forces called Air-Sea Battle which stresses greater levels of cooperation to prevent other nations from denying access to shipping lanes, particularly in the western Pacific. The battle concept also is seen as a way to do more with less defense funding.

RIMPAC provides the opportunity not only to test greater integration of the Navy and Air Force, but to practice in a busy military environment with lots of assets and other nations participating.

Lt. Col. Patrick Winstead, commander of the active-duty 535th Airlift Squadron, said his C-17 crews have been flying RIMPAC missions about three days a week. The Hawaii Air National Guard also flies the eight C-17s at Hickam.

Winstead calls RIMPAC "a huge opportunity to train." More complex missions have included C-17s dropping supplies or troops with eight to 10 fighters covering for the cargo jets.

"Those fighters are trying to protect us, and other (simulated enemy) fighters are trying to prevent us from doing (the mission), and so there’s a lot more communication, a lot more dynamic flow with what’s going to go on," Winstead said.

The diversity of training with multiple types of fighter aircraft is not often available, he said.

Both Hickam C-17s taking part in the exercise over Pohakuloa Training Area dropped a combination of heavy and lighter loads. The Spirit of Kamehameha also dropped by parachute four 55-gallon plastic drums partially filled with water.

The crews used the trip out and back to also practice air refueling north of Hawaii island and to simulate troop parachute drops from an altitude of 800 feet during two passes over Kahoolawe.

The Spirit of Kamehameha linked up with a Hawaii Air National Guard KC-135R refueling tanker, edging ever closer and beneath the tanker to the point where the jets were 10 feet apart.

"When you are new to it (refueling), and even if you’ve done it for a while, every time you do it, it’s different. That makes it challenging," said Maj. Jon Baize, 32, a 15th Wing pilot who flew part of the mission Tuesday.

From the C-17 it looked as though the tanker’s refueling boom was headed for the cargo jet’s cockpit window.

"It’s a little nerve-wracking the first couple of times you do it, and then you get really comfortable with it," said Capt. Mike Recker, 28, another of the pilots.