Mexican Navy Participates in RIMPAC 2026

RIMPAC stands for “Rim of the Pacific Exercise”. It’s the world’s biggest international maritime military exercise. RIMPAC is based in Hawaii and is hosted and run by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which has its headquarters at Pearl Harbor. It’s a biennial exercise, held every other year.

RIMPAC 2026 was held from June 24th to July 31st. It was a massive event, involving military personnel, vessels and equipment from the militaries of 30 nations.

Here’s the summary from the U.S. Navy Third Fleet website: “Thirty nations, 30 surface ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 197 aircraft, and more than 30,000 personnel participated in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands from June 24 to July 31. As the world’s largest combined and joint maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that strengthens interoperability and fosters trust, cooperation, and shared values among allies and partners. These relationships contribute to the security of sea lanes and support a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2026 marked the 30th exercise in the series, which began in 1971.”

The 30 countries participating in RIMPAC 2026 were Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States.

The Mexican Navy brought two ships to RIMPAC: ARM Benito Juárez and ARM Usumacinta.

The ARM prefix stands for Buque de la Armada de México (Ship of the Mexican Navy). It’s equivant to USS in the U.S. Navy or HMS in the Royal Navy.

ARM Benito Juárez is a “long-range ocean patrol ship” (Patrulla Oceánica de Largo Alcance / POLA in Spanish). It was constructed in the Netherlands and in Mexico at a Mexican Naval shipyard in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. The vessel was commissioned in 2020.
Here’s a photo:

The ARM Usumacinta was originally the USS Frederick in the U.S. Navy, an LST (Landing Ship, Tank), designed to transport tanks, other vehicles and cargo. The USS Frederick was
commissioned in 1970, seeing service in the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. It was decommissioned in 2002 and purchased by the Mexican Navy and commissioned the same year, as the ARM Usamacinta.

Here’s a photo at RIMPAC of the ARM Benito Juárez followed by a Philippine Coast Guard vessel in a formation exercise in the Pacific, July 19th, 2026.

Here’s the description of the photo below from the U.S. Coast Guard website: “U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Matthew Jacobs, a boatswain’s mate, drives the Legend-class cutter USCGC Kimball’s over-the-horizon small boat while Ensign Jonathan Barrett, a law enforcement officer, provides instruction to member of the Mexican Naval Infantry during pursuit training in the Pacific Ocean as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 12, 2026.”

Source: Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Graves, U.S. Coast Guard

The next photo portrays U.S./Mexican/Philippine “non-compliant vessel boarding training” [U.S. Coast Guard website] . Don’t worry, it’s just training:

From caption of next photo, U.S. Coast Guard website: “U.S. Coast Guardsmen, Mexican Naval Infantry and Mexican sailors pose with their respective country’s flags aboard U.S. Coast Guard Legend-class cutter USCGC Kimball (WMSL 756) during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026 in the Pacific Ocean, July 12, 2026.”

SINKEX, the planned sinking of decommissioned vessels, was part of RIMPAC. From the U.S. Third Fleet website: “Ships and aircraft participating in exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026 conducted a planned, live-fire sinking exercise (SINKEX) and sank decommissioned USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), July 12, 2026, and decommissioned USS Peleliu (LHA 5), July 17. Mobile Bay and Peleliu were sunk in waters 15,000 feet deep, more than 50 nautical miles off the northern coast of the island of Kauai…During the SINKEXs, participating units from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army gained proficiency in tactics, targeting and live-firing against a surface ship at sea. Live-fire exercises deliver hands-on, realistic training that sharpens partner nations’ capabilities to coordinate, plan and execute sophisticated maritime operations, including precision targeting and strike capabilities.”

The decommissioned USS Peleliu taken out in order to be sunk:

Here is Spanish warship ESPS Alvaro De Bazan, launching a Harpoon missile to help sink the Peleliu:

As for the decommissioned USS Mobile Bay, the final strike that sunk it was from a torpedo launched by a Royal Canadian submarine. Click here for a video.

It looks as though a good time was had by all.

Click here for a a cool video about RIMPAC 2026, at the top of the page.