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CUTTING EDGE: Pte Jenine Surmon, 10FSB, slices up the capsicums at Camp Rocky’s mess.
Picture: Cpl Michael Davis |
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| LET US SPRAY: Members of 9 Petroleum Pl with 10FSB conduct a fire drill at the fuel farm at Shoalwater Bay Training Area. Picture: Cpl Michael Davis |
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ON TARGET: Gnr Lindsay Knott, 16 AD Regt, trains with the RBS-70 while aboard HMAS Manoora.
Picture: Cpl Michael Davis |
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WATCH OUT: Three soldiers from B Coy, 2RAR, provide fire support as other soldiers assault the Urban Operations Training Facility.
Picture: Cpl Chris Moore |
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PUMPED UP: Pte Jamie Howard, 10FSB, operates the V35 Pump to refuel a Humvee.
Picture: Cpl Michael Davis |
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PACKING A WALLOP: Sgt Steven Tucci and Gunnery Sgt Michael Valenti, US Marine Corps, prepare to ambush an approaching convoy with a Javelin missle launcher.
Picture: Cpl Chris Moore |
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LINE OF FIRE: HMAS Tobruk’s embarked forces conduct a live firing en route to their insertion point.
Picture: AB Paul Berry |
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IT took 18 months to plan and involved more than 25,000 Australian and US personnel, making Exercise Talisman Saber 2007 one of the ADF’s largest and most complex exercises.
ADF lead planner Leut-Cmdr Victor MacIntosh, of the ADF Warfare Centre at RAAF Base Williamtown, said the exercise scenario was developed to allow for high levels of operational warfighting.
“We designed the training enemy around what our forces have to face,” Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
The planners took into consideration what the training audience, the Blue Force, wanted to get out of the exercise in terms of its objectives.
“For example the training audience might say we are running up against the problem of IEDs in Iraq, we would like the training enemy to have that capability, so we can practise our routines and processes to help us defeat that threat,” Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
This year’s exercise was the most complex held, incorporating simulation and virtual components located in Australia and overseas.
Virtual input came from F/A-18 simulators at RAAF Base Williamtown, the bridge simulator at HMAS Watson providing naval gunfire support and an instrumented AC-130 Gunship flying virtually in the US, as a part of the Joint Combined Training Capability (JCTC), Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
“Special Forces and other Army troops at the Townsville Field Training Area as part of JCTC wore simulation vests and if they were hit they felt vibrations in the jacket. All of this was also a component of the virtual input,” he said.
The Urban Operations Training Facility (UOTF) at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area was used for the first time during the exercise.
“It allowed the soldiers to move out of the bush and into more complex urban terrain, and they practised their lines of communication from the tactical warfighting environment to the operational headquarters and back down again,” Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
“We used lessons we had learned in Afghanistan and in Iraq and applied them in the exercise at the UOTF, where we could monitor the success of the tactics used.
“Army found this to be a real plus. It came away a winner overall in terms of expanding its understanding of interoperability with our allied forces in complex terrain.”
The standout achievement for the exercise for Army was the successful amphibious lodgement of Blue Force ground forces led by 3 Bde Commander Brig John Caligari.
“His land forces had to project from the sea, had to pick up the battle on the land and then move forward and culminate with an urban battle,” Leut-Cmdr McIntosh said.
Another positive aspect of the exercise was the successful integration with the US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Unit from Okinawa with the Blue Force.
“This gave Australian and US Marines an opportunity to operate together in battle teams. This worked very well and it was the first time Australian and Marine forces were able to see how their respective HQ staffs worked,” Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
“This enabled them to decide who would fight what aspects of the battle, allowed them to see what technologies both forces had and what logistical resources were available to support the force.”
The Army benefited from a number of lessons in the areas of logistics, technology and communications, he said.
“The logistic train of support required to conduct offshore operations should never be minimised and always needs to be taken into consideration in this type of operation,” he said.
“As Australia steps forward into network-centric warfare, understanding what this means and getting some of that technology down to our frontline warfighters is a key point. We also need to trust the new technology coming into service; we really need to get our heads around computer and targeting systems and how they can be used in the battlespace.”
For the Combined Task Force (CTF), the exercise satisfied all 13 combined mission-essential training tasks and objectives. The US 7th Fleet Command formed the US CTF and HQ 1 Div formed the Australian-led CTF.
“For the US forces to be certified they are actually assessed on the objectives and to be a CTF they have to pass them, so they can go and conduct live theatre operations,” Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said.
“We don’t certify against them in Australia as yet; we conduct an evaluation, but basically the principle is the same. All of the 13 major mission essential training tasks for the exercise were achieved by both CTF HQs and the CTF forces, which includes Army.”
Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh said it would be more accurate to label Talisman Saber as an operational event, not an exercise.
“It is the largest thing the ADF does including operations. The value of training which comes from it sometimes is missed by certain sectors of the ADF,” he said.
“It is a huge undertaking in terms of operational planning … and my hope for the future would be for the rest of the ADF to take advantage of what Talisman Saber has to offer.”
The next Talisman Sabre will take place in 2009 and Leut-Cmdr MacIntosh’s 12-member team will begin planning again in September this year. |
