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| Intel put to the test in Exercise VigPac By LT Simone Heyer Edition 4909, 31 May, 2007 |
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It's like a “choose your own adventure novel”, but the characters were role players and intelligence operators, and the story-line was the script for Exercise Vigilant Pacific (VigPac) conducted around South-East Queensland recently. VigPac is an annual combined, joint exercise involving the ADF and defence forces from the US, Canada and the UK. It is a combined command post exercise and field training exercise focused on the conduct of human intelligence and counter-intelligence collection operations in the fictional country of Legais. 87SQN intelligence officer FLTLT Lesley Leppard was part of the exercise script-writing team. She wrote the script for role players to follow, full of clues for intelligence operators and analysts to decipher and from which to draw conclusions. The script was based on a story-line developed for the exercise last year and, for the duration of the week-long exercise, the script was continuously updated. FLTLT Leppard said there were several themes to be followed to deliver the clues. “We have to write a story-line in a way that doesn’t give it away,” she said. “The script is an ongoing process based on whether the teams pick up the information they require or not. If they don’t, we’ll write clues into another area.” She said scenarios for VigPac were wide-ranging and included terrorism and bioterroism. Role players represented people from all walks of life from business to local law-enforcement. The exercise was conducted throughout the Brisbane area, from RAAF Base Amberley to Enoggera, Bulimba and Caboolture. Role players were placed with teams to gather intelligence to reach various learning objectives. FLTLT Leppard said teams were debriefed after each mission and the acquired information was then processed in the command and control exercise, an organisation that provides the analysis and control function for the deployed teams. The next VigPac will be held in Hawaii. |