More than 50 ships and submarines, 25,000 personnel and over 200 aircraft are currently in the Pacific, participating in the world's largest naval exercise. The Rim of the Pacific exercises held off the coast of Hawaii every other year is an incredible display of forces with hundreds of drills. Nathan King got to experience one up close with the Royal Australian Navy.

The Australian flag fluttering on the deck of the HMAS Adelaide. But down below it's more like the United Nations. Nine Nations on board over a thousand servicemen and women. It's been said an army marches on its stomach navies sail that way, too! But then it's time for today's mission-one that hasn't been done before. Thirteen US armored amphibious vehicles have to make it from this beach into the back of this ship, dealing with swirling seas all without a hitch. Helicopters from the flight deck providing air cover, guiding in the US Marines. It's a bumpy ride. A few knocks, but they make it.

NATHAN KING ABOARD HMAS ADELAIDE "One of the helicopters providing the air cover, it's quite incredible, you have helicopters here on the top deck. While on the bottom deck as you've seen, you can have ships going in while it's coming back. Basically, the ship can do anything you wanted to do. And it's all controlled from up there."

Captain Jonathan Early keeps a close eye on the mission. The HMAS Adelaide is the largest ship in the Australian navy and this is a big opportunity to show what it can do.

JONATHAN EARLY CAPTAIN, HMAS ADELAIDE "We can pack a punch. We can carry a lot of capability here. It's about influence. It's about global responsibility, about regional responsibility of what we can do."

While there is a lot of hard power on display here, hosting other nations - working alongside regional forces and learning from each other - is a display of soft power, too. Australia doesn't participate in naval operations with the United States in the South China Sea or other potential flashpoints, so it's more likely that this ship will be used for disaster relief and humanitarian missions in the future.

JONATHAN EARLY CAPTAIN, HMAS ADELAIDE "Volcanoes happen. Tsunamis happen. Tornadoes happen. Floods happen. And, when they happen they happen relatively quickly, and our ability to mobilize forces and capability to help people in need - that's the key aim here."

NATHAN KING "And now it's our turn to go up on one of these big helicopters. See you later!"

And as we pull away - and the vast expanse of the Pacific reveals itself once more - one can only imagine how many far-flung missions are in Adelaide's future.

NATHAN KING HAWAII "It's been quite a trip with the Australians. Despite the politics of the Pacific it's really just incredible to see these teams working together. Nathan King CGTN."