103 Bty fire 105mm HE Illum rounds at night during Exercise Predator's Gallop 2003 at SWBTA.Photo by L/Cpl Neil Ruskin, 5/7RAR

Headline in future offence

By Major John Liston
THE Army's 21st century offensive support requirements were under assessment during the annual Headline Experiment (HE03) held at the Experimentation and Warfighting Facility in Puckapunyal.

The purpose of HE03 is to inform the Army's capability management committee of the most effective offensive support system for a mid-weight brigade conducting decisive action in the littoral environment.

The littoral is where the three operational domains of sea, land and air converge and is characteristic of northern Australia and the region. Under developing Army doctrine, the littoral area may be defined to include inland areas up to a distance of 150km from the coast - an area where 70 per cent of the world's population is predicted to live by 2015.

The forces in the decisive action phase of Military Operations in the Littoral Environment (MOLE) - the Army's endorsed war-fighting concept - require the capabilities to conduct close combat using combined arms forces, strike at enemy vulnerabilities throughout the battle-space and augment organic fighting power through reach-back (accessing support from outside the area of operations).

HE03 is the last in a series of four experiments conducted this year.

It builds on the Hamel series of experiments and will be based on a scenario involving an Australian-led coalition Joint Task Force with forces from USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand.

The experiment draws on input from across the ADF. Tri-service students from the Australian Joint Staff College will participate in syndicate planning with current and retired senior military officers serving as mentors; and Land Command units will have important representation.

The two-week experiment will also develop a concept of operations to inform the Army on its CSS, mobility and survivability, and ISR needs.

Another aspect of the experiment will involve a research team from ADFA using simulation tools to conduct an analysis of future generic infantry section and platoon structures.

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