Plenty of sabre rattling

SPECTACULAR (above): Fleet oiler HMAS Westralia enjoys an impressive sunset during Exercise Talisman Sabre.

EMBEDDED (below): SBLT Dave Crossley onboard the conventional aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk. Photos:

HOT STUFF (left): PO Dean Fuller does some running repairs with a welder onboard HMAS Success.

ABPH Paul Berry and CPL Bernard Pearson

By LCDR Antony Underwood

More than 1400 Australian sailors participated in the recently completed Exercise
Talisman Sabre practising all the skills required for operations with the United States forces.

From amphibious landing of troops and equipment involving amphibious and hydrographic survey ships and aircraft to the maritime warfare skills required to meet subsurface, surface and air threats, all involved were engrossed for about 11 days from June 10.

An imaginary power struggle involving mythical countries was used to bring together some 17,000 sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen from the RAN, Australian Army, RAAF, USN, USMC, US Army and USAF came together on, over and off the coast of central Queensland’s Shoalwater Bay training area.

While the RAAF practised parachute insertion of troops ashore, Commander Deployable Joint Force Headquarters CDRE Davyd Thomas had the honour of leading the Blue Task Group of more than 20 ships from the amphibious assault ship, USS Boxer.

Australian units in the exercise included:

• Amphibious ship HMAS Manoora and landing craft HMA Ships Brunei, Labuan and Wewak;
• Surface combatants HMA Ships Canberra, Warramunga and Ballarat with embarked 816 SQN Seahawks;
• HMA Submarine Farncomb;
• Supply vessels HMA Ships Success and Westralia,
• Minehunters HMA Ships Huon, Hawkesbury, Norman and Yarra;
• Detachments of Clearance Diving Teams 1 and 4;
• Survey ship HMAS Melville and motor launches HMA Ships Shepparton and Benalla. And the United State fielded:
• The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk;
• Guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens;
• Guided missile destroyers US Ships Fitzgerald and John Paul Jones;
• Guided missile frigate USS Vandegrift;
• Amphibious assault ship USS Boxer;
• 7th Fleet amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge;
• Military Sealift Command underway replenishment oiler USNS Guadalupe; and
• A mobile diving and salvage unit.
  
  Development and maintenance of interoperability — the term adopted for ability of Australian units to work effectively in a task group with US ships — were key aims of Exercise Talisman Sabre.
  
  Apart from the RAN’s most senior officer afloat, LCDR David Graham was embarked with other Deployable Joint Force Headquarters staffers in USS Boxer.
  
  He said Talisman Sabre tested Australian and US service members across the full spectrum of joint capability from operational aspects to humanitarian assistance operations.
  
  “It’s a lot of hard work,” he said, “but Boxer has been one of the best ships I have been on and the ship’s company is really professional and enjoyable to work with. “Members of Combined Forces Maritime Component Command are basically supporting CDRE Thomas.
  
  We provide him with the best possible information so he can make decisions in regard to the exercise.” Embarked in the conventional aircraft carrier, USS Kitty Hawk, was HMAS Waterhen’s SBLT David Crossley.
  
  “It’s been an exciting exercise on Kitty Hawk,” he said,.
  
  “And it’s been the experience of a lifetime working alongside the US forces doing my job as a logistics supply officer but they do business in a similar way to us.”
  
  More joint work was carried out by survey and amphibious units with US transport, weapons and marines at Sabine Point.
  
  Some 40 RAN clearance divers from Clearance Diving Team 4 with some additional support from CDT1 joined their US Navy and Army colleagues for work afloat and ashore.
  
  Canberra joined the enemy Red Force and Blue Force were put through their paces in anti-submarine warfare with combat ships and ASW aircraft including RAN Seahawks.

.