Through the predator’s eyes

A new model M113A1 APC from 1CSR whips up a dust storm, charging into action on Ex Predators Gallop. Photo by Cpl Damian Shovell, Army newspaper

A 1 Armd Regt Leopard moves into a sheltered holding point in preparation for the battle run at Mount Bundy. Photo by WOFF Trevor Grant, 1JPAU

Infantrymen from Victor Company, Linton Military Camp New Zealand, watch as an Australian Chinook arrives to extract them. Photo by Cpl Michelle Lucraft, 1 JPAU

Cpl Damian Shovell goes on the prowl with Battle Group Tiger for Ex Predators Gallop

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Red dust, blue skies, blinding sun and heat set the scene for 1 Bde’s recent annual Exercise Predators Gallop in the Northern Territory, where soldiers were put through their paces in preparation for high readiness opperational tasks.

Conducted in two stages, with two weeks of live-fire at Mount Bundey before moving about 500km further south to adjacent the Delamere air-weapons range near Katherine for a futher week of manoeuvre training , this year’s Predator’s Gallop served as the final test for Battle Group Tiger (based on 5/7RAR) to step up as the online Deployable Battle Group (DBG).

In his first brigade-level exercise since assuming command of 1 Bde in June, Brig John Cantwell said the exercise provided a great opportunity for him to come to grips with manoeuvring a mechanised formation.

“The Government decided several years ago to raise the readiness level of 1 Bde to match that of 3 Bde,” he said.

“This was a major change for the brigade and the increased readiness requirements have really put an edge on our training and exercises since then.”

“The fortnight of live firing at Mount Bundey was an intensely busy and very good period of training with all elements of the brigade live firing in concert with each other, with particular emphasis on the DBG delivering mechanised infantry assaults supported by tanks and artillery.

“We also had several prominent visitors during the live firing, including the Vice Chief of Defence Force, the Commander 1st Division and the Chief of the New Zealand Army, and it was great to showcase the combat power of the brigade to these VIPs.

“The live fire phase provided an excellent springboard for the major manoeuvre phase near Delamere that followed.

“All of the live fire activity was great but, as an armoured corps soldier, I particularly enjoyed the final event which was a very rapid and violent manoeuvre using a rather untraditional grouping of forces.

“This incorporated live fire by tanks from 1 Armd Regt, ASLAVs from 2 Cav Regt, guns from 8/12 Mdm Regt and an SASR patrol who were able to get in and OP the position, report information, assist us to get onto the position and we then supported their extraction when they were threatened by OPFOR armour. It was a great example of an unusual but lethal force packaging.”

Lasting about a week, the Delamere phase culminated in an advance over about 60km using a number of pastoral properties which had not previously been available for military use, providing a land area several times that of Mount Bundey.

Here the brigade elements practiced occupying an assembly area, advancing against an aggressive and capable opposing force (OPFOR), seizing river crossings that had been heavily obstructed by the OPFOR engineers, defending those crossings while allowing other forces to cross, preparing for an advance to another objective to the north, conducting that advance to contact and in contact, and then a major attack to secure a final objective during the last part of the exercise.

This tested and exploited all the capabilities required for the brigade’s readiness and exercised its core war-fighting capabilities.

The exercise was timed to mark the scheduled hand-over of responsibility for the DBG from Battle Group Leopard (based on 1 Armd Regt) to Battle Group Tiger.

During the exercise the DBG operated all the elements of the combined arms team, comprising the headquarters of 5/7RAR under Lt-Col Mike Lean, who was able to employ the battalion’s mechanised capabilities reinforced by tanks, the guns of 8/12 Mdm Regt, and sappers from 1 CER.

In addition, the DBG was supported by EW detachments from 7 Sig Regt, RBS-70 teams from 16 AD Regt, plus reconnaissance helicopters from 161 Recce Sqn.

2 Cav Regt (commanded by Lt-Col Roger Noble) provided a highly manoeuvrable and potent OPFOR, using their ASLAVs plus tanks, mechanised infantry and engineers.

Brig Cantwell also said the exercise benefited from the inclusion of Special Forces elements, who gained the experience of working with armoured and mechanised forces.

“I particularly valued the fact our field training coincided with Excercise Pitch Black, a major multinational air combat exercise, so we had unprecedented levels of close air support, which really gave the air defence detachments some great targetting opportunities,” he said.

“At one stage I was amused to hear CO 2 Cav Regt on the command radio net telling me that the sky was ‘black with attacking fast movers’ over his position!”

“The synchronisation of offensive support was a key feature of the exercise.

“Calling the aircraft in, coordinating the fire of the guns, the mortars, all as part of the offensive support plan, was a useful activity in itself.”

The movement of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of armoured vehicles 500kms from Mount Bundey to the Delamere area presented its own challenges.

Large convoys of heavy vehicles, ASLAVs and towed artillery presented a surprising encounter for some tourists but the complex procedure went off with any accidents.

Some of the troops were transported in C-130 aircraft conducting ‘tac flying’ at low level, escorted by RAAF F-18 Hornets and Singaporean F-16 fighters.

“In all of our training, we focus on the combined arms close combat capability.

“We do not exercise the infantry battalion in isolation, or the armoured regiment, or the cavalry regiment, the guns or anyone else in isolation.

“The combined arms team is how we train and how we will fight, and everything we do in 1 Bde is based on combining the elements of the team to get the best battlefield effect.

“That’s our core business – combined arms, close combat.”

During the exercise 1 Bde was also supplemented by almost 300 New Zealanders, comprising 1RNZIR infantry mounted in their new NZLAV armoured vehicles, which was the first time they’d deployed or tested them on any exercise.

The teaming up of Australians and New Zealanders prompted the renaming of Battle Group Tiger to Battle Group Anzac for the exercise.

“Predator’s Gallop was a great training opportunity for the Kiwis.

“I have to say I admire their gutsy decision to take brand new armoured vehicles that they have hardly touched, into one of the harshest training environments in Australia, on a major exercise – live-fire and dry-manoeuvre – in a brigade setting, as part of a battle group which is being tested at it’s peak of operational readiness.

“That’s a tough assignment.

“There’s been some good learning on both sides, particularly for the Kiwis ... they’ll have gotten things out of this that they could never have achieved back home, and for 1 Bde, with a significant number of our infantry soldiers over in Iraq with the Security Detachment (SECDET) and in the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT), it definitely benefited us to have a company of fine soldiers who we’ve historically worked with over years of national affiliation.”

“At the end of this exercise, I needed to be satisfied that the DBG was ready to conduct short notice, medium intensity operations in accordance with the Chief of Army’s Capability Directive.

“There were specific, measured and tested objectives for all of the units involved.

“This Brigade has a tremendous amount of combat power, indeed we are the most potent fighting formation in the Army, and we need to ensure that we can synchronise all of that combat power and supporting forces to maximise its impact.

“I am very pleased with the outcomes of Predator’s Gallop, and the exercise was an outstanding training opportunity for leaders and soldiers at all levels.”

Summing up, Brig Cantwell looked ahead to new capabilities soon to be fielded in the Brigade.

“It’s a great time to be a soldier in 1 Bde.

“We’re getting great new equipment in the coming years – the M1 tanks, the upgraded M113s, new urban fighting facilities, the ARH arriving in the near future, and slightly beyond that there is a project to replace our artillery and another project to give us new trucks, which are also critical to our capability.”