Hot to trot

O Group, right: Soldiers from the AMTG receive orders before heading out on a training mission during the MRE. Photo by Cpl Cameron Jamieson

Barred-up: A 2 Cav Regt ASLAV displaying the recently acquired Bar Armour System that protects against RPGs during the MRE.

Shared know-how: Maj Peter Hageman, Royal Netherlands Army Air-mobile Infantry, Lt-Col Michael Vacca, US Marine Corps, Lt-Col Edward Parks, Royal Marines Commando, and Maj Fumio Fujioka, Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force, assisted the MRE.

Listen in: Lt Troy Ford, right, issues orders to his troop in preparation to undertake an incident response mission as WO2 Dave Bastion takes notes.

Mount up: A 2 Cav Regt soldier leaps to the turret of an ASLAV during the MRE in Darwin. The exercise represented one of the largest MRE the ADF has yet conducted. Photos by Cpl Cameron Jamieson

One of the ADF’s largest ever Mission Rehearsal Exercises put the Al Muthanna Task Group through its paces in preparation for its upcoming deployment to southern Iraq. Cpl Cameron Jamieson reports.

Ramp up, above: 2 Cav Regt ASLAVs in their bays while crew members work on completing the pre-deployment tasks. Photo by Cpl Robert Nyffenegge

While the Iraqi women sat in the shade of their market stalls the men gathered to chat about current events. But through the first-storey window of a nearby building you could catch a glimpse of a man with a Kalashnikov rifle, cautiously watching for security forces while his comrades plotted over a table.

Silently, like a band of ghosts, the cordon of Australian soldiers from the Al Muthanna Task Group (AMTG) melted into position before a command group moved into the marketplace to talk with the locals.

The gunman in the window froze, then called out a warning to his cronies. He brought his weapon to his shoulder, but he was already too late. Outside a number of Australian rifl e barrels were pointing at him, ready to stop the fi ght before it began.

Such was the realism of the Mission Rehearsal Exercise (MRE) that the Combat Training Centre (CTC) recently held for members of the AMTG, who will be required to liaise with and protect the local civilian population as well as other coalition partners while reacting appropriately to threats.

Arguably the biggest and most complex exercise that CTC has run in its three years of operations, the exercise also benefi ted from the presence of overseas offi cers who have served in the Al Muthanna province.

CTC Commander Col Dick Stanhope said the MRE had been a massive undertaking, given that there were 450 personnel involved in training the 450 members of the AMTG. “Previously we had trained up to squadron-level, but now we have grown to the task group-size activity,” he said.

“We put a lot of effort into providing training, rehearsal and guidance for our role players so they were dressed correctly and acted in accordance with the role they had been given.

“And I believe we started to make them think like the people they played, which added to the realism.

“To do that we had to do a lot of research into the different groups in Al Muthanna province, and then write up scripts and conduct training sessions for the role players.”

Col Stanhope said an important factor in the successful conduct of the MRE was the presence of overseas subject matter experts.

“We had Japanese, Dutch, British and US officers, and they came with experience of the area of operations,” he said.

“They were most useful in teaching the role players.”

The overseas officers were also on hand to play the roles of their counterparts still in Iraq as part of the Multi-National Division-Southeast that the Australian troops will be part of, allowing the AMTG soldiers to gain experience in dealing with non-Australian military personnel.

There was also another non-ADF surprise waiting for the task group members, although this group didn’t wear uniforms.

Media specialists from the 1st Joint Public Affairs Unit were on hand to replicate the civilian media who will report on the deployment of the AMTG into Iraq.

“Clearly, interaction with the media both in Australian and overseas will be a key element of the success of the task group,” he said.

“So there has been individual media training prior to the exercise, and we’ve had the media element interact with the task group so the soldiers can practice dealing with the media in a live environment.”

CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy said the MRE was a concentrated effort, based on the expertise that CTC had gained over the years.

“I was pleased to see the fi delity and the accuracy of the exercise,” he said.

“They were trying to recreate as much as they could of the conditions the soldiers and offi cers will experience in Iraq.

“It was an enormous effort, it took CTC a long time to put it together, and I’m very impressed with what they have done.”

Lt-Gen Leahy said it was important to make the training as realistic as possible.

“The thing I like to hear, and I’ve heard it a lot now from talking to soldiers who have been on operations, is that their deployment was just like the training.

“Or, the training kicked in and they knew what to do, or the training was actually harder.

“When you see that sense of confi dence and the feedback in the training you know you are training your soldiers well.”