Winning the peace

Staff cadets prepare to fly out of the AO. Photo by LCpl Neil Ruskin, 1JPAU

A signaller calls the chopper in as troops deploy to provide support and resupply to a force in contact.

SCdt Graham Sowiak receives quick orders. Photos by Sgt Mark Dowling, 1JPAU

As security operations fast become the nature of modern warfare, military leaders need to be fully prepared for the fluid character of this kind of conflict.

RMC-A devotes a significant component of its full time training syllabus to security operations with the practical component embodied in Exercise Borneo.

Eighty five cadets deployed to Canungra in February to put theory into practice with a fast-paced, complex activity designed to revise basic foundation skills and create the pre-conditions of a security operation.

Elements of the exercise included scenario-based training, the practice, planning and the conduct of security operations, air-mobile training and field firing.

As part of a wider field training package spanning some three months in their final six months of training, Ex Borneo allowed cadets to experience several leadership appointments in an environment similar to the East Timor experience, together with periods of escalated conflict. As graduation approaches, the focus of training remained on the appointment of platoon commander.

Serials for the exercise were as varied as they were challenging. From displaced persons requesting medical treatment to company-level cordon and search operations, Ex Borneo provided a variety of training.

The exercise culminated in a company dawn attack centred on a jungle village.