By
LT Simone Heyer
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Q800
Air Force personnel will be deployed to
Exercise Talisman Saber 05:
– CFACC/CAOC augmentees;
– Strike fighter squadron;
– MPA P-3Cs;
– Transport lift C-130;
– Combat Reserve Wing;
– Surveillance Control Group; and
– Combat Support Group.
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DESPITE
high levels of operations, Australia and the US are gearing up
for what will be the biggest combined exercise of the year.
Eleven thousand US personnel and 6000 Australian personnel will
converge on the central Queensland area and the waters east of
the region for Exercise Talisman Saber 2005 (TS05).
A command post exercise at the beginning of TS05 will involve
about 300 US and ADF personnel squeezed into the ADF Warfare Centre
(ADFWC), as well as a significant number of personnel in Townsville
and embarked on US ships.
Squadron Leader Andrew Munden, ADFWC’s SO2 Air Plans in Exercise
Wing, said responsibility to be the lead planning agency for the
biennial exercise, held from June 12-30, alternated between the
US Pacific Command (PACOM) and the ADFWC.
“Talks began at the strategic level in 2001, but in 2002
a small team conducted initial planning for TS05 with the US,”
he said.
“Talisman Saber 05 is the first in an ongoing series of exercises,
replacing Crocodile and Tandem Thrust, as the overall concept
for Talisman Saber is different.”
The primary aim of the Talisman Saber series is to exercise Australian
and US training objectives in the high-end warfighting environment.
The primary focus of the series will be on the operational level
command post exercise activity, which exercises US PACOM’s
principal Joint Task Force Headquarters – CTF70 – which
is based in Japan.
“[HQ Joint Operations Command] and ADFWC were involved in
operational-level planning with US PACOM and CTF70 from the start.
Subsequently, planning conferences were held to develop overall
concept and design for TS05 that supports accomplishment of ADF
and US component training objectives,” he said.
“Once these combined objectives were established, they were
given to the force components to develop their individual objectives
and requirements for the exercise. The initial planning conference
was held in April 2004 to conduct initial detailed planning and
documentation developed.”
This planning had occurred around ADF operations and deployments.
“Planning for TS05 has not gone smoothly because of real-world
happenings. We’ve had to reconfigure the exercise, downsizing
the Australian and US involvement by 50 per cent.
“For example, originally, up to three carrier groups were
planned to participate, now there’s only one, however, we
expect that TS07 will be at least as large as TS05 was initially
planned to be.”
Based on fictional scenarios, the exercise includes combined Special
Force operations, parachute drops, amphibious landings, artillery
and infantry manoeuvres, air combat training and advanced maritime
operations.
SQNLDR Munden said the highlight of the exercise would be live
firing activities in the last stages. These will be conducted
in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.
The US will bring two hulks (out-of-commission ships) to be sunk
300nm off the coast of Queensland during the live firing exercise.
