Bound for Iraq
Volume 11, No. 54, October 19, 2006
By Michael Brooke

Oil it’s cracked up to be: Pte Mary Cook, Combat Team Brumby, OBG (W) 2, carries out routine checks on a Bushmaster during the MRE. Photo by Sgt John Carroll

Dawn’s early light: Bushmasters roll out of 2 Cav Regt’s lines on their way to Kangaroo Flats on a vehicle-mounted patrol during the MRE Photo by Sgt John Carroll

React: Combat Team Tiger soldiers call for assistance after a simulated IED-initiated ambush.

Guns go: Elements of Combat Team Tiger practise disarming drills with a role-player.

OVERWATCH Battle Group (West) 2 will deploy to southern Iraq this month confident of mission success after completing a highly realistic Mission Rehearsal Exercise in Darwin.

The training from October 9 to 20 involved members from 2 Cav Regt and 5/7RAR as well as support elements who form OBG (W) 2.

It featured lessons learnt by 2RAR, which is part of OBG (W) 1, and Combat Training Centre-Live (CTC-Live) from previous MREs.

The hour-long battle that elements of OBG (W) 1 fought with insurgents at an Iraqi Army barracks at Ar Rumaythah on the eve of the MRE provided members of OBG (W) 2 and CTC-Live with extra incentive to make the training as thorough and realistic as possible.

The MRE for OBG (W) 2 involved more than 500 troops from 2 Cav Regt and 5/7RAR, as well as some 250 role-players. The exercise consisted of a CPX, lane training and a free-play phase, with the result being that the battle group is ready for any security challenge in Al Muthanna province.

CO 2 Cav Regt Lt-Col Tony Rawlins, who will command OBG (W) 2, said the MRE was conducted mostly at Kangaroo Flats Training Area and Mount Bundy Training Area, as well as Robertson Barracks (replicating Tallil), using a range of ASLAVs, M113s and Bushmasters, as well as plant equipment.

In a major feature of the MRE, OBG (W) 1 Adjt Capt Michael Bassingthwaighte returned from Iraq to help prepare the next rotation for the challenge of providing overwatch in Al Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces.

“I was brought back a little early specifically to provide up-to-date in-country advice about the situation, points of contact, and minute detail which you probably wouldn’t get from training personnel here in Australia,” he said.

“What we try to do is replicate what is in-country as close as possible, which is why the most recent lessons learnt have been fed into this training package.”

The ability to provide a very close replication will help OBG (W) 2 “hit the ground running”.

“It’s vitally important to get the battle group in a state where it can do its job and do it to a very high professional level – which is what I think we achieve with our MREs and training,” Capt Bassingthwaighte said.

Comd 1 Bde Brig Craig Orme said he was “pleased with the tempo of the extensive training regime over the past month”.

He was confident the MRE had “put the final polish on these highly trained, well-led and well-equipped Australian soldiers”.

Comd CTC Col Wes Volant said “Army’s short learning loop was further enhanced by participating US Army and British officers, the Explosive Hazard Awareness Team from 6ESR, as well as the normal CTC in-theatre validation prior to the MRE”.

Lt-Col Fred Cobain, CO/CI BCW, who supervised the CPX, said the exercise aimed to provide realistic and relevant training for the challenges OBG (W) 2 will encounter in the Australian area of responsibility in Al Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces.

Lt-Col Cobain said the outcome of the MRE was that OBG (W) 2 fully understood the importance and process of maintaining situational awareness with community leaders, engagement with the local population, liaison with the joint operation command and surveillance of key terrain, as well as through signals and human intelligence collection.

Maj Wayne Gough, OC Ops Cell CTC, supervised the free-play phase of the MRE, which began with the battle group’s engagement with key stakeholders in their AO and ended with intervention as a result of a request for military support from the provincial authorities and MNF-I to help quell escalating violence.

A major feature of the live free-play phase was the inclusion of Orion and Hornet aircraft for the first time and an Iroquois from1 Avn Regt, which served to fully exercise the planning and integration of coalition air assets.

In the free-play phase, the battle group’s ASLAV and Bushmaster-equipped Combat Teams Tiger and Eagle, as well as the HQ and echelon forces Dingo and Brumby, rehearsed engagement and intervention missions.

The two combat teams patrolled the main supply routes that linked the three towns of As Rumaythah, Al Salman and As Samawah, which brought them into contact with more than 250 role-players who portrayed Iraqi soldiers, border police, militias, tribal leaders, civilians and media.

Australia’s 500-strong OBG (W) is based at Camp Terendak, Tallil Air Base.