Treasure hunting
Volume 11, No. 45, June 15, 2006
By Michael Brooke

Met by moonlight: A member of the TAG-E team assists with a fast roping exercise during exercise Neptune’s Treasure. The joint exercise was conducted as part of the National Counter-Terrorism Plan.

TERRORISTS who seized two ferries and an oil tanker in Sydney Harbour never knew what hit them when 4RAR’s Tactical Assault Group East (TAG-E) responded to a callout triggered by NSW Police under the National Counter-Terrorism Plan.

TAG-E dealt effectively with the terrorist threat during exercise Neptune’s Treasure, conducted in and around Sydney Harbour from May 16-18.

Within minutes of being inserted by Black Hawks from 171 Avn Sqn on to the Manly ferry Collaroy, TAG-E commandos were able to prevent any harm being inflicted on the hostages.

The joint exercise was conducted as part of the National Counter-Terrorism Plan and will provide valuable lessons learned for future counter-terrorist operations such as the APEC Summit in Sydney in 2007.

CoS SOCOMD Col John Mansell said that Neptune’s Treasure tested both state and ADF capabilities to respond to a terrorist incident. He said the exercise provided TAG-E and its supporting elements from IRR and 171 Avn Sqn with the opportunity to test their response capabilities and interoperability with civil law enforcement agencies that had the lead in such exercises and operations.

“The value of the exercise to TAG-E is getting used to operating with national and state agencies and increasing our familiarity with sites and areas of iconic value in which we might have to operate, in this case Sydney Harbour,” he said.

Col Mansell said the exercise provided the opportunity for “an overt demonstration of our counter-terrorist capability” which in itself should help deter acts of terrorism in Sydney and the rest of Australia, he said.

He said he had absolute and total confidence in the capability of TAG-E to deal with any domestic terrorist threat.
“I think Australia has a world class counter-terrorist capability. The Tactical Assault Groups in the east and west are well-funded, well-trained and well-manned,” he said.

“And in addition to that we’ve added the IRR and 171 Avn Sqn and this is a significant addition to our counter-terrorist capability.”