CONTACT Yearbook 2020

AIR LAND & SEA THE AUSTRALIAN MILITARY MAGAZINE

2020 YEARBOOK

2020 YEARBOOK

Produced by Contact Publishing, PO Box 3091, Minnamurra, NSW 2533 www.contactairlandandsea.com

2020 YEARBOOK

Compiled from the 2020 archives of CONTACT Air Land & Sea e-magazine

18

52

70

50 4

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

CONTENTS

Subscribe FREE to CONTACT Air Land & Sea e-magazine via www.aussiecombat.com

22 6 The Big Pictures 12 Assault Pioneers On the comeback

18 Littoral Battlespace 2RAR peer on peer

22 Bushfires

Op Bushfire Assist

34 Cope North 36 Medics under fire 38 Sovereign strategy 40 New Normal

40

Op COVID-19 Assist

46 RIMPAC All at sea

90

46

50 Pacific Presence 52 MH-60R 56 Future Ops 60 HMAS Sydney V

Commissioned at sea

62 Sheean VC 64 Middle East Down sizing

70 Boxer bush bash 78 Robots 86 Long Khanh 88 Pilberra Patrol 90 Malabar 94 ANZAC Day 96 F/A-18A Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

5

MARCH BIG PICTURE

QRF

6

Photo by Specialist Caroline Schofer Task Group Taji Quick Reaction Force Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles line up for a range shoot at the Taji Military Complex, Iraq. TG Taji QRF is responsible for base defence and regularly conducts patrols.

They also provide ‘guardian angel’ security overwatch for coalition forces training Iraqi Security Forces.

RANGE PRACTICE

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Photo by Leading Seaman Leo Baumgartner

JUNE BIG PICTURE

An MH-60R ‘Romeo’ Seahawk helicopter on HMAS Parramatta deploys missilecountermeasure flares while on deployment off South East Asia. The flares are designed to distract heat-seeking missiles.

ROMEO FIREFLY Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

7

SEPTEMBER BIG PICTURE

Photo by WO2 Neil Ruskin

JAVELIN Direct Fire Support Weapons Platoon soldiers from 3RAR fire a Javelin anti-tank missile during Exercise Long Khanh at the Townsville Field Training Area.

KHANH DO

?????

8

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Photo by Corporal Brodie Cross

DECEMBER BIG PICTURE

Major General Roger Noble returns a salute from 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s Lance Corporal Courage after promoting the mascot during the unit’s 50th Anniversary Parade on 14 November 2020 at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville.

The Regiment celebrated its 50th birthday with a number of activities, including a live-fire demonstration, social sporting matches and a formal mounted parade, on which it was awarded its first theatre honours – East Timor and Iraq.

Unit mascot Lance Corporal Courage is a 15-year-old female wedge-tailed eagle, recruited into the Regiment following the death of her predecessor WO2 Courage in October 2017.

PROMOTED

COURAGE

??????

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

9

BIG PICTURES

Photo by Leading Seaman Craig Walton An Australian Army soldier with Qargha Force Protection Company provides security during a task in Afghanistan.

Members of Force Protection Element 12 are deployed to Camp Qargha, Kabul, to protect ADF and Coalition members on a train, advise, assist mission at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy.

FPE-12 Guardian Angels are Australian regular and reserve soldiers providing security for advisors working with Afghans.

Around 300 ADF members are deployed to Afghanistan on Operation Highroad.

10

Photo by Leading Seaman Richard Cordell HMAS Toowoomba conducts small-boat training at night during a patrol in the Gulf of Oman as part of the International Maritime Security Construct.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

TOO Cargo ????? is offloaded from a RAAF C-17A Globemaster at Wilkins Aerodrome, Antarctica.

The flight, in mid November, was the first of the 2020/21 season of Op Southern Discovery, ADF’s support to the Australian Antarctic Division. The round trip is approximately 7000km.

A C-130J Hercules from No. 37 Squadron in transit to a designated parachute drop zone during Exercise Havoc Drop conducted near RAAF Base Wagga, NSW. Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

Photo by Corporal Craig Barrett

Photo Photo

by US byDoD Flying Officer Carston Reimers 11

BY STEPHEN J. THORNE, LEGION MAGAZINE REPRODUCED COURTESY OF LEGION MAGAZINE

12

An age-old military tradition has returned to the Canadian Army just a few years after it was abandoned. Assault pioneers – long-known as the bearded, leatheraproned, axe-bearing innovators whose jobs originated with the Roman legions – are making a comeback, albeit with some modern twists.

A

ttached to infantry units, they have typically been responsible for manual labour and light engineering work such as road-clearing (hence, the axe) and specialised explosives work, making way for assault troops to proceed with their lethal tasks.

Usually about 10-men strong, they are the MacGyvers of the infantry units, coming up with novel solutions to unique problems or obstructions that usually impede the progress of the main body of troops.

The British Army’s Royal Pioneer Corps defines the pioneer as a skilled worker who “leads the way, embraces a purpose, tough of spirit, far-sighted, and adventurous – the person who will prepare the way for an advancing army”.

A history compiled by Roland Wardle, a re-enactor pioneer in the War of 1812-era 8th Regiment of Foot, says the earliest references to combat pioneers he could find was in the Bible’s Book of Nehemiah, Chapter 4, Verses 17-18.

“They will build on the wall, and they that bear the burdens, with those that laded, everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon,” it says. “For the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so builded.”

Imbued with their own special esprit de corps, assault pioneers more typically trace their roots to ancient Rome, before full-fledged combat engineers, when the Roman legions needed advance parties to venture ahead to secure and clear the army’s advance, often under hairy conditions.

Pioneers appear in the pay and muster rolls of the British Garrison at Calais in 1346.

By the 1600s, pioneer contingents under their own command were attached to the artillery and, later, with the 7th of Foot (Royal Fusiliers).

By 1739, the Foot Guards had organised and maintained a detachment.

The Black Watch and other infantry regiments followed.

By the 18th century, British infantry battalions were detailing sections or squads of pioneers under the command of a corporal or sergeant. Their main tasks were to perform or supervise heavy construction work.

Canadian forces fighting the First World War in Europe had at least a half-dozen pioneer battalions, including the 2nd Canadian Pioneer Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, which distributed more than 1000 men among infantry units.

LEFT: Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering students doorbreaching.

RIGHT: Canadian pioneers learn how to destroy a wire obstacle with explosives.

13

LEFT: Sergeant Andrew Rimmer, 2RAR pioneer sergeant on a training mission in the Philippines.

ABOVE: Pioneer sergeant, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

RIGHT TOP: Pioneer sergeant, 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment.

RIGHT MIDDLE: Lance Corporal Grant Durich, a 2RAR pioneer.

RIGHT BOTTOM: Canadian assault pioneers.

This story caught CONTACT’s attention, initially because it was illustrated with Australian Army photos. But we liked the informative story too – so we sought and were granted permission to reproduce it. We also asked the Australian Army if they would care to add anything from the Australian perspective. We were told (in a longwinded response) they were too busy.

14

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

The 3rd Canadian Pioneer Battalion (48th Canadians) was attached to the 3 Canadian Division; the 67th Western Scots (Pioneer Battalion) joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916 and the 123rd Infantry Battalion was repurposed as a pioneer battalion in January 1917. It replaced the 3rd the following May as the pioneer battalion of the 3rd Canadian Division. The 124th Infantry Battalion was also repurposed and became the pioneer battalion of the 4th Canadian Division.

During WWII, it was assault pioneers who did the so-called ‘mouse-holing’ in Ortona, Italy, blasting through the interior walls connecting Italian houses so combat troops could make their way up streets out of sight of waiting German snipers.

There are numerous stories of how the tradition of facial hair among combat pioneers came to be, prominent among them the assertion that their Roman commanders excused them from shaving because they had to be up and on their way in darkness, well ahead of the traditional infantryman.

“In theory at least, the principal distinction of the pioneer was his axe, apron and his beard, the only soldiers allowed to be unshaven in the otherwise cleanshaven army,” Wardle writes. “The wearing of the beard was a privilege, because their task was considered so arduous in warfare. Away from the regiment and the niceties of formal camp life, they were permitted facial hair.

“However, it may have reflected the simple fact that because they formed the advance party, usually setting off before dawn, shaving in the dark was hardly a practical proposition. Like so many other privileges in the army, it soon became a requirement and, even today, it is expected of the regimental pioneer sergeant that he will grow a suitably impressive beard.

“In practice, however, beards were probably much more widely worn on active service than contemporary illustrations suggest.”

In British army tradition, units on parade are led by a bushy-bearded pioneer sergeant wearing his leather apron and carrying an axe over his shoulder.

Bearded assault pioneers served with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, but in the post-Cold War era, army planners eventually deemed the job redundant and not cost-efficient, so the pioneers were disbanded and their tasks handed off to combat engineer regiments.

Captain Colton Morris, an instructor at the Canadian Army’s infantry school in Oromocto, N.B., helped design a new assault pioneer course. He told The Maple Leaf, the CAF’s newspaper, that senior leaders have since come back to the idea that pioneers are a good investment for the evolving army.

“Engineers have a huge envelope of things that they’re responsible for,” Morris said. “And without the assault pioneers, they’ve been saying, ‘we have many tasks and in order for us to maintain all those skills, we’re running ourselves ragged’.

“Engineers and assault pioneers complement each other.”

The pioneers’ role in Afghanistan actually reaffirmed their value as the military shifted its emphasis to lighter, more mobile, and agile forces.

The former army chief, Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk said the “new version of the assault pioneers will assist in maintaining mobility in complex terrain”.

“So that means in mountains and, particularly now, in urban environments where skills like breaching come into play,” he said. “Right now, that task is solely held by the engineers. They have to do things like fortify buildings, clear roadways, move obstructions and all sorts of other stuff. They don’t have the personnel to augment the infantry.”

The Canadian Army is now offering an assault pioneer course to infantry soldiers in both the regular and reserve forces.

“The intention is to increase retention,” Morris said. “By bringing the assault pioneers back, we open up other options for privates, corporals, junior leaders – and even officers – to expand their breadth of experience.” rd

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

15

ANY TIME ANY SPACE Exercise Mars Mix was a show of strength and tactical response by Tactical Assault GroupEast (TAG-East), Corporal Sebastian Beurich reports.

Exercise Mars Mix demonstrated the ability of 2 Commando Regiment’s Tactical Assault Group – East (TAG-E) to respond to a number of different scenarios.

The exercise, completed late last year, tested core counterterrorism skills in complex urban and maritime environments, with insertion methods including RHIBs, helicopter and free-fall parachute.

It was supported by Navy’s MV Sycamore and Air Force aircraft including a P-8 Poseidon and two EA-18G Growlers, which provided electronic warfare effects.

Mars Mix was the latest in TAGE’s continuation training, which ensures they are ready to respond to terrorist incidents in support of State or territory police.

TAG-E comprises a commando company with an embedded platoon of Navy clearance divers, supported by a troop of engineers from the Special Operations Engineer Regiment, as well as other trade specialists.

Tactical Assault Group or TAG is an Australian special forces construct tasked to counter terrorism incidents in Australia on land or at sea, and with conducting overseas specialrecovery operations.

Australia has two TAGs on line on permanant rotation – Tactical Assault Group - East, built around 2nd Commando Regiment in Sydney and Tactical Assault Group - West based on the SASR in Perth.

16

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

17

2RAR SHAPING THE LIT T ORAL

BATTLESPACE

The littoral zone is that which is within a certain distance of shore – on the water and the land

Reconnaissance and surveillance continue to shape the battlespace for 2RAR, Corporal Julia Whitwell reports

18

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Surveying threats ashore, reconnaissance soldiers from 2RAR (Amphib) feed information back to embarked forces, spearheading Defence’s amphibious operations.

Specialising in reconnaissance and small-boat platoons, 2RAR arrive days ahead of the maritime force to prepare beach landing sites and underwater lanes, conduct surveillance and enable battlespace shaping.

Commanding Officer 2RAR Lieutenant Colonel Judd Finger said the unit forms Army’s component of, and commands, ADF’s Joint Pre-Landing Force, reinforced by clearance divers, geospatial survey teams, military working dogs, signallers and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“We’re shaping the battlespace through the coordination of joint effects and have learnt a lot from the joint force and our coalition partners, so we can continue to improve and evolve our capability,” he said.

The 300-strong battalion, which calls HMA Ships Canberra and Adelaide its second homes, is also prepared to provide Army with an infantry battle group if required.

Soldiers focus on amphibious and force-level reconnaissance, coalition interoperability and mannedunmanned teaming.

“We are always focused on challenging dogma and learning best practice in order to provide scalable, tailored and lethal options to Australia’s amphibious force.”

Based at Lavarack Barracks, 2RAR’s support soldiers, including storeman Corporal Ben Laird, are proficient beyond their base trades.

“We get to deal with the infantry side of things more,” Corporal Laird said.

“We fire Mag 58s, 66mm rockets, GLAs [grenade launchers] and get coded on the 40M, HX77 and G-Wagon [vehicles].

“We also have to do an annual swim test and helicopter underwater escape training.

“It’s a positive culture and everyone has the same level of motivation. We all do the best we can.

“It’s a high-morale environment where you always push for excellence because you know everyone else in the unit is doing their best too.”

The ethos of 2RAR fuels the battalion through its high-tempo battle-rhythm, as its two Pre-Landing Force companies cycle between ready and readying.

2RAR also aims to train each infanteer in reconnaissance by 2021, while fulfilling commitments to joint exercises, operations and international engagements.

Last year, 2RAR deployed elements to the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as on Operations Augury – Philippines, Townsville Flood Assist, and Render Safe in the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Fiji.

This year the battalion will support exercises RimPac in Hawaii and Croix Du Sud in New Caledonia.

Small-craft operator Private Darryn Breugem said the battalion had become more specialised during his five years at 2RAR. “A lot of the training we do is different to other infantry battalions, such as in amphibious reconnaissance and our small-boat capability,” Private Breugem said.

“During APEC 2018 we were attached to a clearance diver team, inserting them into certain ports to make sure jetties and cruise ships were free of explosives.

“We helped the divers survey the sea floor and, wherever they needed to go, we’d help get them there.”

Private Breugem’s small-boat skills also came in handy getting around Townsville’s flooded streets in 2019, helping evacuate more than 400 civilians, including at night.

“There were white-water rapids on some of the streets and it was fairly shallow, so we were getting sucked towards storm drains and the water running back to the river and out to sea,” he said.

“We had a sense of fear, but with the training we get, we knew what we were doing and that gave us confidence.

“Our guys persisted to get to everyone they needed to evacuate and we all got out fine in the end, leaving no one behind.”

CAPTIONS: 2RAR reconnaissance soldiers conduct an early morning (opposite) and late-night (below) insertion at the Cowley Beach Training Area, Queensland.

Photos by Corporal Tristan Kennedy

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

19

PEER on PEER

Private Bryce Thomason-Wylie sat on a muddy hill and looked down on a stretch of beach, watching a black shape bob towards land.

The soft patter of idle engines echoed from small inflatable boats as they waited to collect an enemy patrol hidden somewhere around the Cowley Beach Training Area.

It was part of 2RAR B Coy’s free-play training scenario and the first time reconnaissance patrols went head-to-head since 2RAR restructured to two pre-landing forces – PLF-Alpha and PLF-Bravo in 2019.

From July 20 to 24, patrols from 22 Platoon attempted to mark a beach landing site secretly for notional ground forces, while 21 Platoon observed them from a concealed position on land.

“We’d been sitting in an observation post for four days,” Private Thomason-Wylie said.

“There was no activity before we saw the boats. It had been raining non-stop and maintaining focus was a challenge.

“Usually we train in a scenario where the enemy is out in the open. It’s good to train against another reconnaissance patrol that is trying to stay hidden as much as we are.”

Patrol Commander Corporal Jonathan Williams said the activity was only possible because planned major exercises were cancelled because of the global pandemic.

“We were going to go on exercise Croix du Sud in New Caledonia this year,” Corporal Williams said.

“Instead, we’ve used the training time as an opportunity to focus on our core skills – and activities like this give soldiers a realistic feel for the job.

“If there are other reconnaissance patrols out there using specialist equipment, such as spotting scopes and thermal imaging, there’s a real risk of compromise.”

As well as a realistic experience, Private Thomason-Wylie said pride was on the line as the two platoons went head to head.

“No one in the company wants to get a reputation as the patrol that was compromised and failed the mission,” he said.

“Everyone was on the ball as we didn’t know where the enemy was or if they were actively seeking us out.”

Officer commanding B Company Major Jack Bolton said the activity exposed soldiers to the complexities of a non-scripted battlespace.

“In Defence we talk a lot about being prepared to fight against a ‘near-peer’ enemy, but we want to be ready to fight a peer enemy too,” he said.

“With peer-on-peer free-play activities, we can provide soldiers and junior commanders with a sense of what they’re going to face in a contemporary battlespace.”

With the expansion of the battalion to two pre-landing force elements, peer-on-peer training helped develop the reputation of reconnaissance units, according to Major Bolton.

“We’ve got to adapt to raising three extra reconnaissance platoons and increase the basic level of skills and knowledge of all of our reconnaissance-qualified soldiers so we have that subject-matter expertise across all four platoons in the unit,” he said.

“These exercises help us to quickly focus on reconnaissance and surveillance skills as a primary training objective to try and speed up that learning loop.”

20

Right: Unnamed 2RAR reconnaissance soldiers approach the beach by Zodiac.

Bottom: Private Arlen Treston covers the beach with a silenced F89 Minimi machine gun during a reconnaissance-patrol extraction at the Cowley Beach.

Far right: Private Arlen Treston scans the shoreline during a riverine insertion at Cowley Beach.

Please note: While the story refers to a training activity in July 2020, the photos are from a similar activity in November 2019.

Story courtesy ARMY newspaper Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

A beach landing scenario helps 2RAR focus and hone its reconnaissance and surveillance skills Private Jacob Joseph reports

Photos by Corporal Tristan Kennedy Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

21

e of u s s i s eviou eported r p e In th CT, we r A for CONT support F on AD e-fighting ide fir s a w st s bush o r c h-ea ts a t r u o o f f s e e of th in what a e r a tralia y called s u A l of ficial bushfire f o e wer phic’ o r t s ‘cata ons. , iti cond now know deed in e As w ophe did DF A tr catas – and the ate l strike reported ump h ts effor ar were c to d e last y compare . e ge chan as to com st o w what ite this, m w r no As I w fires are at r e of th ished – o ol – gu tr extin nder con ng u hi least to drenc s e thank hich hav ,w own r i rains e h dt y cause ms in man e probl . s place this But, we still love y, sunburnt countr of droughts and flooding rains…

22

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

A

major increase in Defence bushfire-fighting support was announced on New Year’s Eve, with a significant injection of manpower and equipment to boost the bushfire-fighting effort, initially at the request of the Victorian government.

Black Hawks from Sydney and, at first, a single Chinook helicopter from Townsville moved south in preparation to rescue stranded residents in towns and hamlets cut off by fires.

Royal Australian Navy ships were also mobilised, to an area off East Gippsland in preparation for evacuations.

HMAS Choules out of Sydney and MV Sycamore out of Jervis Bay, both with significant capacity to land helicopters, and send boats ashore, were first to respond.

But this was just the start – and follow-on deployments ramped up quickly.

The effort now also had an official name – Operation Bushfire Assist 19-20.

On 2 January, HMAS Choules and MV Sycamore arrived off the bushfire-isolated Victorian town of Mallacoota – now famous for photos and video of townsfolk and holidaymakers alike huddled on the beach as fires literally lapped at the edge of the sand – to evacuate hundreds of locals and tourists.

Australian Defence Force personnel commenced evacuating more than 1200 people on the first day.

HMAS Choules, with a crew of 179, departed for Westernport on the Mornington Peninsula with about 1100 evacuees aboard, followed by MV Sycamore and her crew of 29 civilian contractors and one Navy officer, with 60 evacuees on board.

Journey time for both ships was about 20 hours.

CO HMAS Choules Commander Scott Houlihan said that for a bunch of people who had been through one of the most horrific experiences you can ever imagine, their spirits were high, they were joyful, they were a pleasure to have on board and it reaffirmed his belief in the human spirit.

“The embarkation was a key milestone achieved through close coordination with various government and nongovernment agencies,” Commander Houlihan said.

“We quickly and effectively integrated with counterparts from Emergency Management Victoria, Victoria Police, the CFA, the local council, Red Cross and other agencies.

“The embarkation process started around 8am, with people being moved from the community centre to the pier by bus, and then moved across to the ships using five landing craft embarked in Choules.

“By early evening we had completed the embarkation and were underway heading towards Westernport.

“I could not be prouder of their efforts and the results achieved.”

Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Arron Convery oversaw the welcome of all evacuees on-board Choules.

“The general spirit among our guests has been one of appreciation mixed with relief to get away from the devastation and the heavy blanket of smoke that has engulfed the region,” he said.

“Of course, there was some level of worry, but there were many hugs of appreciation throughout the day.”

In addition to the human evacuees, hundreds of pets accompanied families.

“There were 135 dogs on-board, some cats, even a rabbit and a bird,” Lieutenant Commander Convery said.

“The pets and their humans were comforted by being able to stay together for the transit, and we were pleased that we could facilitate this.”

Commander Houlihan said a key counterpart from one of the partner agencies in the evacuation described the process as being ‘organised and structured, without being sharp and brutal,’ and he thought this described perfectly the attitude, flexibility and welcome demonstrated by Choules’ and Sycamore’s ships’ companies – and was to become a hallmark of the entire operation, driven from the top down.

Commander Operation Bushfire Assist 19-20 Major General Jake Ellwood issued a Facebook video (and, presumably, also a ‘normal-means’ directive (since ADF members are not allowed to access Facebook over military means)) to his subordinate commanders, to guide their actions in the field.

Major General Ellwood’s message was intended as both guidance and authority for commanders in the field in directing the day-to-day activities of the increasing number of soldiers, sailors and airmen streaming into the field.

“The ADF’s surge to support the Australian response to the bushfire emergency is to have an immediate, demonstrable and positive impact in order to support our emergency-management services and affected fellow Australians,” Major General Ellwood said. “[But] safety first – we are not to become a part of the problem.

“Get the priorities right. These will constantly change. I need you to watch, assess, amend and then act.

“Put others first. Provide our emergency-service and affected civilians with what they need, when they need it.

“Lean forward and offer the best and most appropriate advice for our unique assets to best meet their needs.

“Do not put off to tomorrow what can be done today. We will be judged on our responsiveness – and we should be.

“Don’t turn away anyone in need. If you don’t have a solution, go and find one. If we can do it – and it’s ethical and responsible – we will.

“Do not have our people or our assets dormant. If there is not an immediate task, think of a task that will need to be done tomorrow, and do it today.

“Be thoughtful and imaginative. Make us proud, like you always do.

“My thoughts and prayers will be with you all as you lean in, side-by-side with our fellow Australians at this critical moment in time.”

23

24

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

This video message was received overwhelmingly positively on Facebook. In the words of one woman – “Major General Jake Ellwood your fellow servicemen have gone above & beyond in what you asked of them in your message here. They were super amazing from the moment of contact! Courteous, caring, considerate, compassionate and all with a smile! This made me feel so very proud to be an Aussie and I can’t praise all on board HMAS CHOULES enough! Your command and families I’m sure will be extremely proud already but from the bottom of my heart… Thank you! for all that you’ve done and all that you will endure in the future. Stay safe… love your work. X Karen”.

The Royal Australian Navy’s largest and most capable amphibious ship, HMAS Adelaide, soon also joined the mission.

While there was little hoopla surrounding this announcement, it later emerged that the sailing was no small feat in so far as Adelaide was actually tied up in significant maintenance over the December-January period and mammoth efforts were required to wrap works up to allow the ship to sail.

Five Defence-industry civilians who were caught up in her short-notice departure were happy to stay on board as work continued even as she sailed.

News of international help for the ADF’s Op Bushfire Assist was quick to emerge too – on top of copious actual civilian firefighting assistance already at work, but not covered in this story.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand Defence Force would assist its Australian counterpart.

“New Zealand Army engineers and three NH90s twin-engine helicopters will be deployed to Australia to support them as they continue to battle the fires raging across multiple areas,” Prime Minister Ardern said.

“This is by no means the only thing we can do to help, and we’re at the ready and talking to our neighbours frequently.

“Even before we saw the smoke from the fires across the ditch, I know we were already thinking of our friends and neighbours in Australia.

“It’s been devastating to watch from afar – I can only imagine what it feels like to experience it directly.”

On 4 January the government announced a compulsory callout of 3000 Army reservists on Operation Bushfire Assist – the first time in Australian history such powers have been exercised.

The callout followed a meeting of the National Security Committee, which also resolved to deploy additional Chinook helicopters, a C-17 Globemaster, C-130 Hercules and C-27 Spartans – plus, a range of Defence bases were to be prepared and opened to receive evacuees.

In making the announcement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the rapidly escalating damage and the heart-breaking human cost, called for nothing less than an all-out response.

In the end, the total number of full-time and reserve ADF personnel deployed to Operation Bushfire Assist nudged 7000.

Major elements of the Army’s 1st Brigade in Adelaide and Darwin mobilised almost immediately.

7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment’s Ready Combat Team departed Adelaide early on 5 January to integrate with local authorities, volunteer agencies, and other ADF men and women already on the ground.

Darwin-based personnel from 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, 1st Combat Signal Regiment and 1st Close Health Battalion followed within 24 hours, to support evacuation efforts, emergency-service reporting networks, as well as medical, engineering and transport capabilities.

Despite thousands of personnel being on Christmas leave – some overseas, and some on well-earned admin leave after overseas operations – the escalation in deployment numbers was extraordinarily quick.

And, while the reserves ‘call-out’ was technically compulsory, that probably wasn’t even necessary, such was the clamber for inclusion across all services – everyone desperate to help fellow Australians in desperate need.

For many ADF personnel, there was also a personal connection to the ongoing emergency through family and friends directly impacted by the fires.

When Petty Officer Helen Frank was packing her kit to join HMAS Choules at

short notice on New Year’s Eve, she was also getting updates on the fires near her parent’s home in Orbost in Victoria’s East Gippsland region.

A few days later that personal connection came to the fore when she was interacting with the first group of people to be evacuated from Mallacoota, just down the coast from Orbost.

“On December 31 when we got the call-up, I’d been getting photos from my mum showing the fires, which came within 2km of their house in Orbost,” Petty Officer Frank said.

“So when I was talking to people in Mallacoota and they heard my parents’ house was also in danger, we had that instant connection.”

Able Seaman Liliana Kleber experienced a similar connection when interacting with evacuees.

She was due to travel to the family home in Tathra before she was called to rejoin Choules at short notice on New Year’s Eve. Not only was the New South Wales south-coast town again under threat, but the fires that devastated Tathra in March 2018 were still fresh in her mind.

“Most of my friends lost their houses in the first round of fires and our family home was only saved after a water-bombing plane flew over and spared it,” Able Seaman Kleber said.

“If I wasn’t on Choules I would have most likely been in an evacuation centre.”

On land, tears flowed for one young Aussie soldier as she was reunited with her parents in Mallacoota when she choppered in to lend a hand as a ‘calledout’ Army Reservist on Operation Bushfire Assist.

Private Brodie Scott, an Army Reserve driver with 4th Combat Service Support Battalion in Melbourne, was delighted to take the chance to help out, especially in her home town.

“To know that mum and dad were still there during the fires was terrifying,” Private Scott said.

“I’m really glad that they’re okay, that the family home is still intact, and now that I’ve arrived I’m looking forward to helping out any way I can.”

Sadly, for one Army officer, the bushfires couldn’t have been much more personal as he was called out to assist in the cleanup of a fire that killed two family members.

Lieutenant Kynan Lang from 10th/27th Battalion, Royal South Australian Regiment, lost his uncle and cousin in a bushfire on Kangaroo Island on 3 January.

The same day, he received news he was also called out as an Army reservist to assist the Kangaroo Island community.

25

26

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Dick Lang, 78, and his youngest son Clayton, 43, were killed attempting to return to their property after fighting a nearby bushfire for two days.

Mr Lang senior was a well-known ‘outback pilot’ in the tourism sector, while his son was a respected plastic surgeon in Adelaide.

Lieutenant Lang was supported by colleagues as he erected temporary memorials to his family at the place where they perished.

The motto of their unit – ‘Pro patria’, which, translated from Latin means ‘For country’ – a poignant reminder why they were called out to assist.

Warrant Officer Arthur Mitcherson, Choules’ Command Warrant Officer, said the personal connection with the bushfire emergency had impacted many service men and women.

“It’s a credit to our people that they can support these communities while at the same time knowing that their family or friends could be struggling or in danger,” Warrant Officer Mitcherson said.

Almost simultaneously with the ship evacuations, aircrews from 5th and 6th Aviation Regiments, Australian Army, were busy helping State emergency services to air-evacuate dozens of people from bushfire-threatened hamlets in Victoria.

Black Hawk, Taipan and Chinook helicopters were in action on 4 January, with at least 42 people and a number of dogs air-lifted from Omeo in Victoria’s high country at the start of what would eventually become a record-breaking effort.

Mount Hotham and surrounds were also covered by the operation, with at least five helicopters – two Black Hawks, two Chinooks and an MRH-90 Taipan seen on one footy oval at the same time.

Evacuees were taken to RAAF Base East Sale, which quickly became a major air hub for the wider mission.

Chinooks, in partnership with medical teams from 2CHC were also photographed evacuating people from the town of Orbost on Victoria’s south coast.

By 6 January the first of the three Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopters picked up in Auckland by RAAF C-17, were ready for tasking out of HMAS Albatross, in Nowra, New South Wales, while a contingent of New Zealand Army combat engineers were deployed via a RNZAF C-130 Hercules to support the ADF efforts.

By 7 January, a force made up of engineers, logistics capabilities and personnel from Army’s 9th Brigade had deployed to help with recovery and clean-up on Kangaroo Island – 7th Brigade deployed approximately 400 members to support operations in NSW and Victoria – even 20th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, deployed a Wasp drone system and personnel to conduct reconnaissance operations in Victoria (and later in the ACT).

Army’s CH-47F Chinooks (four assigned), MRH-90s and Black Hawks had by now shifted focus to distributing emergency food, water, fuel and medical supplies to communities isolated by road closures and active firefronts.

Two Singaporean CH-47 Chinooks were sent from their training base in Oakey, west of Brisbane.

Soldiers from 7RAR, already on the ground, borrowed a fleet of Bushmasters from the Army School of Transport at Puckapunyal to help with their taskings.

On 7 January, a C-17 Globemaster flew from Brisbane to Adelaide with a water purification and desalination system (WPDS) to turn sea water into drinking water for residents of Kangaroo Island.

The system was flown to RAAF Base Edinburgh, north of Adelaide, and transported by road and ferry to the island.

Nine soldiers from 6th Engineer Support Regiment, based at RAAF Base Amberley, and two health-support staff from 2nd General Health Battalion, based at Gallipoli Barracks, set up and operated the system for weeks.

Lieutenant Mark Loneragan, of 6th Engineer Support Regiment, said WPDS was capable of producing up to 100,000 litres of purified water a day from the sea.

“Once established and initial supply is achieved, the system can continue to produce water under supervision, with regular maintenance undertaken by a small support team,” Lieutenant Loneragan said.

Aside from heavy-lift aircraft, RAAF also put Poseidon’s eyes in the sky to provide vital daily information to firefighting crews on the ground.

Operating out of RAAF Base Edinburgh, the crews from No. 11 Squadron flew eight to 10 hours a day conducting aerial surveillance of infrastructure and roads in fire-affected areas all across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia’s Kangaroo Island.

Wing Commander James Wright was in charge of P-8A operations and planning and said the crews had also been capturing imagery, which was passed to authorities on the ground.

“Our value is from the P-8A Poseidon’s speed and the expertise of the crews to interpret what they are seeing on the ground, from a height of around 15,000 feet,” Wing Commander Wright said.

“They can get from one target to another very quickly and this has proven to be a useful service to ground-based crews.

“Everyone wants to contribute in some way and our members have been really keen to support this operation.

“Sadly, our crews were seeing homes and businesses destroyed but, importantly, they can then quickly assess the status of a township, which is useful for those on the ground who don’t have our birds-eye view.”

Other aircrews doing a big job were the C-27J Spartans, pushed to their limits in nightmare flying conditions.

In heavy smoke and poor visibility, the crews from No. 35 Squadron made essential contributions to airlift missions, especially around south-east Victoria.

Their missions included delivering supplies and specialist personnel into Mallacoota, and evacuating members of the civilian community.

The mission to Mallacoota was also supported by Australian Army Chinook, MRH90 and Black Hawk helicopters, contracted search-and-rescue helicopters, and the Navy.

The first Spartan landed in Mallacoota on 3 January and evacuated 25 people, but heavy smoke thwarted first attempts to land in the town the next day.

Video of a Spartan crew flying through an eerie red glow generated by the smoke, attracted international media attention.

Improved conditions on 5 January allowed Defence aircraft to evacuate 381 people, with eight Spartan missions carrying out 243 of those – including 73 children and 15 infants, along with 13 dogs and three cats.

In their first week, the Spartan detachment had carried 472 people and nearly 18 tonnes of cargo and supplies, including generators and diesel bladders flown into Mallacoota to help provide power for those in the community who chose to stay behind to fight.

C-27J Spartan pilot Flight Lieutenant Sean Joyce said the biggest challenge to the mission had been the smoke and the weather.

27

28

“Initially all the smoke that was being blown in from the fires in the vicinity of Mallacoota was making it very difficult to land at the airfield,” Flight Lieutenant Joyce said.

“A cold front also came through and brought in some associated cloud and rain, which made it even more challenging.”

Even with a forecast of heavy smoke and poor weather, Spartan crews launched on missions on the chance that visibility around Mallacoota would be good enough for a quick landing.

“We’ve been really well prepared – we built up as many different approach options for getting into Mallacoota as we could,” Flight Lieutenant Joyce said.

“But I don’t think any of the crew on board have encountered conditions like this before.

“On some days the visibility has been down to 500m or less, when you wouldn’t even attempt to get in.

“We were using all of the tools we have available – but, on some days, none of those were good enough.

“On other days, we made it in, and worked a full crew duty day just to get as much as we could in and out of Mallacoota.”

They even flew an extended crew duty day on 5 January, allowing an additional 90 people to be flown out of Mallacoota before bad weather closed in on the following days.

While the flight from Mallacoota to East Sale takes less than an hour, Spartan crews did what they could to make the trip enjoyable for passengers.

This included providing children with lollies supplied by the Australian Red Cross, along with poppers and colouring-in books donated by the local community.

“It’s pretty clear to us that they’ve been through a lot, but once they’re able to get on the plane and get airborne, and they know they’re being evacuated to a safe part of the community, they’re pretty relieved,” Flight Lieutenant Joyce said.

“They’re really glad to get all the help.”

Flying into small regional airfields is a mission that plays to No. 35 Squadron’s strengths with the C-27J Spartan.

“We have a smaller physical footprint than larger transports, so we can have multiple aircraft on the ground at Mallacoota at the same time as other assets like Chinooks and Black Hawks,” Flight Lieutenant Joyce said.

Mallacoota Airfield has two runways – one asphalt, the other unsurfaced – measuring approximately 1km long.

On these missions, the Spartan is able to take approximately 30 passengers or up to 2700kg of cargo.

No. 35 Squadron’s Detachment Commander at RAAF Base East Sale Squadron Leader Mark Seery said crews carefully managed the Spartan’s weight, fuel and tyre pressure when operating from Mallacoota.

“What you don’t want to do is land on a runway and put any holes in the surface or damage it in any way so that other aircraft can’t use it,” Squadron Leader Seery said.

“No. 35 Squadron has been landing on the unsurfaced dirt runway, and taking off on the sealed runway.

“Our light footprint has made us really effective in operating from Mallacoota.”

The Spartan’s work was made easier by a No. 4 Squadron Combat Control Team delivered to Mallacoota on 5 January to help coordinate passengers for the Spartans, provide weather and airfield information, and assess the condition of the runways.

Further west, the ADF expanded its efforts to defend Kangaroo Island in support of emergency services and the community.

As of Thursday 9 January around 250 reservist and full-time ADF personnel were on Kangaroo Island.

ASLAV light amoured vehicles from 1st Armoured Regiment were conducting route reconnaissance and helping access hard-to-reach areas.

Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles were being used to drag fallen and felled trees off roads and lanes.

The desalination plant was fully operational, pumping out 100,000litres of drinking water per day from sea water.

Buldozers and graders were clearing firebreaks.

And, Army truck drivers were helping to deliver hay donated by farmers on Australia’s mainland to properties to feed livestock.

A fleet of aircraft were also on standby at RAAF Base Edinburgh to evacuate residents from the island should it be deemed necessary. Thankfully it never came to that.

And still more help was coming.

A large convoy of equipment and personnel from the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment based in Townsville departed Lavarack Barracks on 12 January, bound for the fire zones of Victoria – to be partnered with a force of about 100 army engineers from the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

The PNGDF contingent and the bulk of the 3rd Brigade personnel travelled the following day via RAAF C130 Hercules to prepare for the arrival of their convoy and to receive their orders.

A day after that, Fiji said it was sending an engineer platoon to help too – and soon after that, Japan said it was sending two C-130 Hercules.

As time progressed and with scores of bushfires still out of control, but with people largely out of danger, much attention began to flow towards animal welfare.

Many farm animals were starving on scorched earth. Even water was scarse in a lot of places, because infrastructure had been destroyed or dams had been sucked dry in the fire fight.

Cooma farmer George Walters was an individual who put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in to doing what he could – and then the Army stepped in to lend a hand.

“The whole community has gotten behind the relief efforts, but to have the assistance of the Army has been a massive boost,” Mr Walters said.

“Some sheep, cattle and horses haven’t had anything for days.

“We are now reaching farms and properties that desperately need assistance.”

Private Shaun Whitehurst, an HX77 heavy-truck driver from Brisbane-based 7th Combat Service Support Battalion, was one of those tasked to help.

“I’m from off the land at Gin Gin, up past Bundaberg, so I know how tough farmers are doing it,” Private Whitehurst said.

“It’s a privilege to be able to get out and help – being here makes me proud to wear the uniform.”

29

30

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Army vehicles – even helicopters – distributed much-needed fodder for several days.

One of the biggest tasks after the fires was clearing fallen or dangerous trees from roads and roadsides all across three states.

While it was common and expected to see the engineers at the task, a closer examination of shoulder patches often revealed infantry, artillery or even RAAFies behind chainsaws or swinging axes.

The sight of the gunners wielding chainsaws may at first seem unusual, but the scene made perfect sense when you consider that artillerymen often build gun emplacements in the field as part of their normal war-time operations.

But for others, new skills were taught and practiced as a matter of necessity in the face of the mammoth task.

Army Reserve infantry soldiers were busy across south-east NSW, armed with new chainsaw training and skills from the School of Military Engineering.

The fit and nimble soldiers had their skillsets enhanced with a special one-day chainsaw course in Holsworthy that qualified them in crosscut operations.

This training allowed them to cut up fallen timber so their teams can haul away the debris from roads, tracks, fences and properties.

Lieutenant Aiden Frost, 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal NSW Regiment, and team leader for the 5th Engineer Regiment Task Group’s Strike Team 3, Response Team Alpha, said the bushfire crisis instantly focused the minds of all soldiers in the field.

“What I’ve noticed is that the traditional rivalries between units may still exist for the purposes of humour and rivalry, but the truth is that everybody here is a soldier first,” Lieutenant Frost said.

“In the absence of normal coordination, it’s been amazing to see people across the corps work together to make things happen and help the people affected by this tragedy.”

The presence of the soldiers also gave a sense of hope to homeowners who lost everything.

Verona residents Jim and Enid Humphries lost their home to the fires north of Bega and were living in a tent for a while, but soon had a caravan to live in, thanks in part to the Army.

A new access track to their property was needed to circumvent the destroyed house but the path was blocked by burnt-out trees.

That changed when Strike Team 3 arrived, allowing a caravan to be hauled onto the property so the Humphries’ could abandon their tent for a little more comfort.

Mr Humphries said the presence of the soldiers was an unexpected godsend.

“Without them I’d have to be into this with a chainsaw myself – and that wouldn’t be pretty,” the 75-year old said.

Other people were also pleased to see and interact with the military – no more so than in the towns and communities where medical teams were dispatched.

Members of Army’s 1st Close Health Battalion arrived at the Batemans Bay evacuation centre on 7 January and, while they treated a trickle of patients, detachment commander Captain Kaiya Chen said most weren’t physically hurt.

Instead, stories of burnt-out homes and shattered lives were shared as many people just needed someone to listen to their stories.

“I had a lady this morning, virtually in tears, just wanting to have a chat about the things she’d seen,” Captain Chen said.

“A lot of the people have a story to tell and they just want someone friendly to tell it to.”

The 1CHB detachment included a doctor, two nurses, two medics and an Army chaplain.

During the first day of operation, duty medic Corporal Leigh Smith saw one elderly lady with smoke inhalation, and the rest of her cases involved mental health.

“Two had their houses destroyed and they were quite distressed from that,” Corporal Smith said.

“They just wanted to talk – an ear – rather than the hospital or mental-health team.”

Apart from primary health care, the detachment was prepared for resuscitation and stabilisation.

It also had a Bushmaster ambulance for evacuations or extractions from isolated areas if requested by state authorities.

The Army detachment worked alongside an Australian medical assistance team, which also positioned doctors, nurses and a field hospital at the evacuation centre.

Captain Chen said it was a wildly different demographic than normal military operations, but the Army team was very flexible.

“We all know the impact the fires are having on our communities, so we’re all keen to support.”

A small detachment from the 1CHB was splintered off and travelled far and wide – having driven from Brisbane to Bateman’s Bay, then Eden and Coomera and eventually Tumbarumba and Batlow.

Army medic Private Brenden Walker said they weren’t getting many enquiries at first, so they started reaching out.

“We visited the RSL club and started chatting with locals, some of whom started opening up to us,” Private Walker said.

“We found out there were people in need, so we got some addresses and delivered some water.

“They were people who have lost their homes and were living out of their cars and vans, and we were able to help them and offer medical assistance.

“It was an honour to be able to come down and help out. I’m glad I was there when the call went out for people to deploy.”

Elsewhere, two other medical soldiers found themselves in a unique position to use their skills to assist a Victorian community during the bushfires.

Captain Phil Barber, a nursing officer with the 4th Combat Service Support Battalion and combat paramedic Private Rod Scanlon found themselves manning the health centre in Bright after the town’s civilian nurses were ordered to evacuate in the face of a looming bushfire threat.

“This definitely wasn’t on our list of tasks for this deployment, but we’ve had nothing but unlimited charity and support,” Captain Barber said.

Although not normally allowed to treat civilians while in uniform, Private Scanlon said the system had matured in recent years, allowing both military and civilian health services to recognise their qualifications.

“Paramedics have only just been registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, which is the same recognition as doctors and nurses, which frees us up to work with civilian patients,” Private Scanlon said.

“It’s immensely satisfying and rewarding being here – both the responses we get from the local population, who have been tremendously grateful for our presence, and being able to get involved and build a connection with the community.”

Their assistance was just another example of Australians’ love of helping their neighbours, according to Captain Barber, who said Army had become like the “fourth leg of a stool” to the community.

“We’re another element to support them, alongside the firies, the ambos and the police,” he said.

“Everyone on social media says ‘what can I do to help’ – and for some that’s donating money, or for others it’s dropping water off at the Foodbank – but, for us, it’s helping to staff the hospital.”

There was even a baby-delivery story – nearly.

A woman ran into the Cobargo relief centre on 21 January saying her daughter was in labour.

Lance Corporal Archie Fallon called an ambulance, but he knew it wouldn’t be able to reach the mum-to-be at Upper Brogo on the NSW south coast in time.

“I got on our radio to call up Army medics,” he said.

Nearby, medic Corporal Kristie Connell was called off a task to respond.

“I was told to grab my kit, jump a fence and wait by the highway for pick-up because there’s a lady in labour,” she said.

Despite more than eight years as an intensive-care nurse, Corporal Connell had only limited experience with births.

31

32

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

She was joined by Private Nicholas Brimmer, who had helped deliver five babies – but only over the phone as an ambulance dispatcher.

They formed part of a team that took a winding dirt road through fire-ravaged hills to the home of soon-to-be-mum-of-six Sarah Tyrrell.

Fire had burned around Sarah’s house for three days, but the home was spared thanks to lucky winds and the efforts of her husband Byron, who defended the property with a water pump.

“We found Sarah sitting on a beach chair, probably not the best position, but she was calm and we got her on the couch,” Private Brimmer said.

“It was good knowing she wasn’t crowning, but being the sixth child, it could come very quickly.”

Private Brimmer tried to remember the emergency-birth checklist normally sitting on his desk.

Sarah was on a couch with towels tucked around her, contractions were timed and an off-site medical officer prepared for a video call if the baby came suddenly, and advised Corporal Connell in the event of imminent labour.

Police arrived, but still no sign of an ambulance.

Because of patchy phone reception, troop signaller Private Murray Richey set up satellite comms equipment.

“It was a good distraction for dad and the cops,” Private Richey said.

“They were more fascinated with the signals stuff than getting in the way of the labour.”

After about 30 minutes, an ambulance appeared.

On the way to hospital, Private Brimmer rode in the front passenger seat, while Corporal Connell assisted the paramedic in the rear of the ambulance, with lights and sirens on – and reached Bega hospital with just five minutes to spare before baby Ivy was born.

“I’ll definitely enjoy telling this story,” Sarah said.

“It’s not every day you have the Army turn up to make sure your arrival is safe.

“I couldn’t have asked for better help.”

Speaking of ambulances – Army was asked to support the ACT Ambulance Service by providing ambulances, crews and familiarisation training when a State of Emergency was declared in the ACT on 31 January.

The G-Wagon six-wheel-drive ambulance and a Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle ambulance were express delivered with their crews to Canberra by a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A. ACT Ambulance Service incident management team member Michael Hamill said they only had one four-wheel-drive ambulance in the ACT, so they needed the increased capability that Army had, to access difficult areas.

Private Sam Cantle, a combat medical attendant at 5th Combat Service Support Battalion – who is in the final year of a double degree in nursing and paramedics – said the familiarisation training she gave the ACT ambulance officers focused on the six-wheel-drive G-Wagon and the Bushmaster ambulance variant.

“They all know the medical equipment, so I showed them stuff like how to turn on the vents, because once the doors are shut, the space is sealed,” Private Cantle said.

“I also explained the importance of radio checks with the driver before we move off, so we know we have comms if something happens with the patient.Then I showed them how to get stretchers in and out.”

The two vehicles were soon in action.

ACT Ambulance Service officer Commander Joel Powell said the Army ambulances were of great assistance to ACT authorities during the State of Emergency.

“It’s important for them to be up here – we are in a very remote area where we don’t have helicopter access,” he said.

“We want to know that we have the best support available for the firefighters if something goes wrong.

“The ACT Ambulance Service can meet all its commitments on a day-to-day basis, but when we are pushed to the limits, we really appreciate the help.”

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

As firefighting raged on across three states and the ACT, the scale of the effort was so unprecedented that Australia’s stocks of water-bombing fire retardant were worryingly depleted – and, again, the military had a solution and volunteers ready, willing and able.

A RAAF C-17A Globemaster III collected the first 20-tonne load of critical fire retardant powder from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and delivered it to RAAF Base Richmond, followed the next day by a second load on a RAAF KC-30A multi-role tanker transport. Even a Canadian CC-177 Globemaster pitched in.

More than 100 tonnes was eventually airlifted.

Another mammoth flying effort was achieved by the Chinooks, recording a record for the most hours flown in a month by the Australian CH-47 fleet.

Maintenance Troop Commander for C Squadron, 5th Aviation Regiment, Captain Amy Power, said hitting the 400-hour mark after a month was testament to her team’s high-tempo deployment.

“We’ve done a lot of flying and the maintenance workforce have been working extremely hard to make sure the aircraft are serviceable and ready to go when required,” Captain Power said.

Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner praised the speed and scale of the ADF’s response to the bushfire emergency.

Commissioner Andrew Crisp said Defence brought an impressive scale of forces to support the response, relief and recovery efforts, which meant results could be delivered quicker to affected communities.

“From planes to helicopters, from ships to plant and equipment, the sheer numbers of personnel and their assets which the ADF could get out on the ground on any one day was fantastic.”

Commissioner Crisp also said the community response to ADF participation was valuable.

“ADF involvement brings a sense of confidence to the community,” he said.

“People see the uniforms and feel safe.

“That’s an intangible benefit and it had an equal, if not a greater, impact on relief and recovery.”

A key factor that enabled close coordination between emergency services and the ADF was close working relationships.

Colonel Michelle Campbell, the Senior ADF liaison officer at the Emergency Management Victoria’s State Control Centre (SCC) in Melbourne, said the rapid and agile Defence response had its foundations in lessons learnt from Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday fires.

“Previously, State-level ADF liaison was with each agency individually and that took a lot of time,” Colonel Campbell said.

“Now, by being embedded at the SCC, we can liaise directly with all agency representatives to support the effects they were trying to achieve and it sped everything up.”

Commissioner Crisp said the presence of the liaison officers helped emergency services staff understand what resources Defence had available and how their people and assets could be employed.

“Working with ADF liaison officers has been terrific,” Commissioner Crisp said.

“Professionally and personally, it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them.”

As this story was finalised on 28 February, and with more than 3000 ADF personnel still deployed in support of what were by then mostly cleanup and recovery operations, the inevitable questions arising from this year’s catastrophic fire season were coming thick and fast – prominent among them, “Should the ADF be charged with a greater disaster-relief mandate?”

In an almost 600-page report handed down in October, the subsequent Bushfire Royal Commission recommended that it should.

Australians should expect that catastrophic natural disasters were the new norm, thanks to climate change – and that state and federal governments should allow/authorise the ADF to play a greater role in protecting us when they inevitably happen.

Governments should not wait for a natural disaster to overwhelm or exhaust local resources before the ADF is authorised to provide assistance, the report said.

33

COPE NORTH Exercise Cope North ‘family portrait’ by US Air Force Senior Airman Gracie Lee

he Royal Australian Air Force deployed 13 aircraft and 373 personnel to focus on interoperability with United States and Japanese counterparts as part of Exercise Cope North in Guam.

Exercise Cope North at Andersen Air Force Base was held from February 12 to 28 It is a long-standing joint military exercise that aims to improve combat readiness, humanitarian-assistance procedures and interoperability between the forces of the United States, Australia and Japan.

Australian contingent commander for Exercise Cope North Group Captain Hinton Tayloe said the exercise had proven to be an effective way to strengthen military partnerships, common understanding and interoperability.

“More than 2300 military personnel and approximately 100 aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force, United States Air Force, United States Navy and Japan Air SelfDefense Force participated in this exercise,” Group Captain Tayloe said.

“This exercise began with humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief training followed by air-combat and large-force employment training.

“Exercise Cope North allows us to continue to refine our procedures to operate more effectively alongside our military partners in the region.”

Royal Australian Air Force personnel included elements of Air Combat Group, Surveillance and Response Group, Air Mobility Group, Combat Support Group and the Air Warfare Centre.

Eleven F/A-18 ‘classic’ Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, a KC-30A multirole tanker transport, and a combat support element team deployed on the exercise.

Cope North provides a scenario that develops multi-lateral interoperability and coalition procedures in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, air-power missions, including air superiority, close air support, interdiction, electronic warfare, tactical air mobility and airborne command and control.

Humanitarian assistance, disaster relief exercises and strike mission training were conducted during the first week of Exercise Cope North 2020, while air combat tactics and large-force employment training were the focus of the second week.

This was the 10th time Australia participated in Exercise Cope North.

34

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Australian photos by Corporal David Said Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

35

MEDICS

LEFT: Corporals Ashlee Liversedge and Sarah Nixon. Photo by Leading Seaman Craig Walton.

OPPOSITE: Australian and US soldiers train for a mass-casualty incident at Camp Taji. Photo by Spcialist Caroline Schofer.

STORY by Captain Roger Brennan 36

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

UNDER FIRE On March 11 and again on March 14 2020, Australian and New Zealand personnel operating as part of Task Group Taji 10, along with their coalition partners, were exposed to terrifying attacks by multiple rockets fired at their camp.

On 11 March 2020, 15 rockets landed on Camp Taji, killing two Americans and one British soldier from the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The attack left 14 other US soldiers, contractors and coalition personnel wounded, five of them critically, plus one coalition wounded identified as a Polish soldier.

On 14 March 2020, just before 11am, another rocket attack hit Camp Taji with more than 25 107mm rockets striking the coalition compound and an Iraqi air-defences installation, this time wounding five coalition and two Iraqi soldiers.

Iraqi forces subsequently found seven Katyushka rocket launchers containing 24 unlaunched rockets, outside the base.

US Army Specialist Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias, aged 27, US Air Force Staff Sergeant Marshal D. Roberts, 28, and Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon, a 26-year-old reservist with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry were killed in the first attack.

Australian Army medics Corporal Sarah Nixon and Corporal Ashlee Liversedge recalled the rocket attacks.

“We heard a round hit close. It felt like it was just 50m away – it was loud, the building shook, we hit the ground and put on our body armour,” Corporal Nixon said.

“Other Camp Taji medical staff ran in and said to expect casualties.”

Corporals Nixon and Liversedge had to quickly run to a nearby tent to grab medical stores and prepare the resuscitation room while rockets continued to hit the camp.

Over the next few hours, casualties came through the tent, with both corporals providing critical medical support to several of the wounded.

“Sarah and I were part of a team that treated the significant injuries of patients as they came through the tent,” Corporal Liversedge said.

“The whole team played an integral role providing medical assistance to casualties.

“The gravity of the situation was felt when our first patient arrived and it was one of our coalition medics.”

For almost two hours, the casualty numbers grew and medical staff prioritised treatment based on those with major injuries, minor shrapnel wounds and concussions.

Task Group Taji 10 (TGT-X) medical staff worked through the night to treat the wounded coalition personnel, a few of whom had to be evacuated by helicopter for further treatment in Baghdad.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

TGT-X Commander Colonel Nick Foxall praised the heroism of Corporal Nixon and Corporal Liversedge following the attacks.

“Corporal Nixon and Corporal Liversedge showed exceptional care and courage during both attacks,” Colonel Foxall said.

“The actions of these two soldiers almost certainly saved the lives of the injured coalition members.

“They had only been in-country for a short time when they were called upon to do their jobs under fire, and in doing so displayed nothing but the highest of values representing the Australian and New Zealand Task Group.”

In May, Corporal Nixon was back at the main Australian base in the Middle East, away from the dangers of the action in Iraq, yet a world away from her daughter too, on Mother’s Day. Corporal Nixon said while her four-year-old daughter Isabella tried to understand where her

mum was, it was still confusing for her, staying with her grandparents.

“Isabella knows that when I was in Iraq, I was fixing people,” Corporal Nixon said.

“She says she wants to be a nurse when she grows up or she wants to be in the Army, but I don’t think she knows what that really means just yet.

“Although I am missing my family and friends I still have a job to do and I am deployed here with many other mothers in the same situation.”

Corporal Nixon said her family was really proud of her service, and of everyone currently deployed.

“They are especially grateful that we can help Australian and other coalition forces.”

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds sent a happy Mothers’ Day message to all Defence mums, who serve with professionalism and distinction so that all Aussie kids could grow up in a country that knows peace.

37

The Importance of a

National Sovereignty Strategy Opinion piece by General (retd) Jim Molan

Australian Army Sergeant Steven Davidson and Bob Neighbour repair a medical-maskmanufacturing machine at Victorian company Med-Con. The sovereign manufacturer found its products in high demand as international supplies became hard to get.

Photo by Corporal Sagi Biderman.

38

F

ive months ago, as Australia was emerging from a nightmarish summer of bushfires, the first reports of a mysterious new virus began to trickle out of China.

Few anticipated the enormity of the impact that COVID-19 would have on the world. Economically, socially and politically, it is proving to be one of the greatest shocks of my lifetime – greater than the oil crisis of the 1970s, the ‘recession we had to have’, the Iraq and Afghan wars, or the Asian Financial Crisis. In its long-term impact – the true extent of which may not be apparent for years – it has every likelihood of surpassing the Global Financial Crisis, 9/11, or even the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The question we are now facing is what must we prepare for next?

If Australia is to maintain its sovereignty in an even more demanding world, it must embrace widespread reform as it comes out of the COVID-19 crisis. Mediumto longer-term reforms must be shaped by an overall strategy. Because I address medium- to longer-term reforms, nothing in this paper should be taken as criticism of the government’s performance during COVID-19.

The current moment is a crisis for our globalised and integrated world. It has sharply demonstrated the limitations and vulnerabilities of this global model, which we have vigorously promoted since the 1990s and which has delivered Australia enormous prosperity.

But, before this crisis, stress fractures were already showing. Brexit and the election of Donald Trump revealed a simmering popular discontent with globalisation, and not only among those derided as ‘populists’.

Among policymakers in the United States, talk of ‘decoupling’ from the Chinese economy has grown in recent years, in order to avoid vulnerabilities associated with China securing strangleholds over key global industries through such means as state subsidies and intellectual property theft.

The arrival of COVID-19 has turned these stress fractures into enormous rifts. Concerns about how nations would act in a global crisis are no longer abstract, they are real.

What they demonstrate is that, in a crisis, nations will act in accordance with their own interests. Thus, in Europe, we saw France and Germany denying Italy vital medical supplies and the closure of borders within the Schengen area. Decades of effort to promote European unity could not withstand the arrival of COVID-19.

China’s behaviour has proven to be even starker: covering up the virus when it first appeared; directing its state-owned enterprises overseas (including in Australia) to harvest crucial medical supplies and ship them back to China; using the cover provided by the global crisis to escalate its aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea and towards Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia; dispatching medical supplies and professionals to more than a hundred afflicted nations in order to increase its geostrategic influence; and even threatening economic coercion to deny transparency.

Amazingly, the US even refused to send PPE to Canada. What value does any socalled ‘special relationship’ have in this environment?

History has proven, and the COVID-19 crisis confirmed, the naivety of the argument that economic interdependence makes conflict between nations less likely. The free exchange of goods across national borders may have made many richer, but in a crisis, when your nation urgently needs a particular product, and the usual supplier refuses to supply it and instead stockpiles for its own purposes, then you have a problem.

The market is wonderful at providing goods and achieving efficiency under peaceful and predictable circumstances. But in the world we are entering, the peaceful and predictable international circumstances upon which globalisation depends are going to become rarer. We therefore need to strike a new balance between market efficiency and national security.

Our pursuit of market efficiency in recent decades has made Australia richer, but it has failed to deliver security. We relied, often without realising it, on the national power of the US for security while the market delivered unprecedented prosperity. The price we paid was the commitment of small military forces to wars far away. This was a brilliant strategy under the circumstances, but it now must be seriously reviewed.

COVID-19 has heralded the end of a particular phase of globalisation, and the question becomes, how Australia should recalibrate its policy settings to secure sovereignty based on security in the years to come.

We are now acutely aware of the vulnerabilities associated with untrusted globalised supply chains and ‘just-in-time’ logistics. We must become a resilient nation that is better able to withstand shocks and disruption to the global system.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

In the event of a future crisis bigger than COVID-19, we need to ensure that Australia can take care of its own needs in vital areas including food, medicine, energy, IT, fuels, industry, transportation and defence.

As a nation we need to grow and develop our domestic capacity in these vital areas. Through doing this, we can ensure that Australia has the resilience it will need to navigate the turbulent waters of the 21st century.

No one advocates turning ourselves into ‘Fortress Australia’, isolating ourselves from the rest of the world and seeking self-sufficiency in every conceivable area. To do so would inevitably cause a new set of problems.

Australia will remain, to a very large extent, integrated economically with the rest of the world and will benefit from being so. In the economic sector, private businesses will remain central. But it is urgent, and overdue for us to correct the excesses of globalisation from recent decades. COVID-19 has been a big wake-up call. We need to heed its lessons, to ensure that Australia is prepared in the years to come.

It seems self-evident to most Australians that we need to be more self-reliant without trying to be completely self-sufficient.

Self-reliance reflects how resilient as a nation we must be against internal or external shocks, which allows us to retain a higher degree of sovereignty. Selfreliance improves resilience, which itself improves sovereignty.

The recent bushfires demonstrate the principle. Last summer showed that fire-prone areas need much more self-reliance than they currently have. For example, petrol stations in fire-prone areas need to have backup generators to pump fuel when power fails. The same principle applies to nations. The market alone, through its single-minded pursuit of efficiency, will not do it.

The difference between the fires and COVID-19 was that during the fires, only small parts of Australia were shut down and the rest of Australia and the world was available to provide assistance. For weeks we thought it could get no worse than Black Summer. Yet, because of COVID-19, much of the world has closed down, and for periods we could not draw on external resources at all.

At the moment, many may think it could not get any worse than COVID-19.

If we were told in the middle of last year that a virus would close down the world economy and cost our government billions in support payments, with 10% unemployed, we might have said that the likelihood of that occurring approached zero, so there was no need to prepare. But it did occur.

I argue that things could be far worse than local fires followed by a world-wide pandemic that shuts down world economies for a few months, and that we should be as prepared for at least equally probable or improbable events in the future.

If we put ourselves back in the middle of last year looking to predict the future, I submit that the probability of a wide financial crisis or military conflict was far more likely than we ever thought a massive fire followed by a pandemic would be.

Larger, more damaging scenarios involving financial strife or conflict are now even more likely as a result of COVID-19 – not less likely.

It is not my job to provide detailed predictions on what might happen in the medium to longer term in our region or across the world in terms of wider crises.

Yet every indicator that I can see is showing an increased probability that a bigger crisis will occur. We tend to hide these indicators by using polite terms such as cyber attacks, posturing, economic decoupling, rhetoric, stockpiling, weapons procurement, military deployments, espionage, cooperation between allies, harassment, warnings to antagonists, and economic coercion.

If we had such indicators of the pandemic towards the end of last year (as one particular nation did), we would certainly have reacted and increased our medical self-reliance and resilience (as one particular nation did).

My argument is that we should be planning and preparing now for threats beyond the pandemic.

Before COVID-19 the rise of four nations (Russia, China, Iran and North Korea) as well as Islamic extremism, and the real demise of US military power since the end of the Cold War, has changed the balance of power in our region and brings uncertainty that we have not experienced for 75 years. The reliance on the US that we have enjoyed since 1945 remains critically important and we must maintain our alliance. But an overdependence on the US is as dangerous for our future as an over reliance on globalisation was for a pandemic.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

Australian Army Lance Corporal Phillip Williams, 3RAR, Senior Constable Karlaine Taylor, Constable Mel Newman and Sapper Joshua McLean, 22nd Engineer Regiment, on patrol at Altona Beach, Victoria, during Operation COVID-19 Assist. Photo by Private Olivia Cameron.

Because the US has a mandated National Security Strategy which cascades down into most areas of American society – economic, military, industrial, technological – the US at least knows when it is succeeding or failing. And it is failing now in relation to the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific.

Because the US has a National Defence Strategy flowing from the overarching National Security Strategy, they can say, as the US military commander in the Indo Pacific is publicly saying, that he cannot achieve his National Defence Strategy. He makes it plain that he does not have the resources to deter Chinese aggression in all its varied forms in our region – the most important challenge of the 21st Century.

July 2019, before COVID, the head of the US military called China “the main challenge to US national security over the next 50-100 years”, and their Defense Secretary described the Indo-Pacific as America’s “priority theater”.

For Australia, it is not only a “priority theater”, it is our home.

Because the US has a national security strategy, and because the US understands that security is far wider than just the military and is actually the basis of national sovereignty, they know what they want to achieve, when they are or are not achieving it, and they have a Congress with real oversight of these issues.

Australia does not have such a mechanism. We have no overarching national security strategy, or as some people prefer to call it, a national sovereignty strategy.

We have no medium- or longer-term strategy to position all elements of our nation for an uncertain future.

We are brilliant at handling crises, as our government is currently handling COVID-19. But we cannot tell if we are achieving or failing on the bigger issues, because we are a strategy-free nation.

Given the uncertainty of the new era, we must increase our self-reliance or we will lose our sovereignty.

The mechanism to do this must start with a national security or a national sovereignty strategy.

39

40

A

16 Regiment Royal Australian Artillery Gunner Daniel Smith, South Australian Police Constable Bret Sellar, Gunner Brent Winen, SA Police Brevet Sergeant Adam Kuchel and Gunner Zac Isemonger at a state border vehicle checkpoint, near Renmark, South Australia, during Operation COVID-19 Assist. Photo by Leading Aircraftwoman Jacqueline Forrester.

s the 2019/20 bushfire season was winding down and we all thought our annus horribilis was on the improve, along came a little thing – the smallest of things – to turn the very fabric of modern society on its head.

COVID-19 spread across the world with the pace and ferocity of a good old Aussie bushfire, upsetting the very fabric of society. From international and domestic border closures and compulsory quarantining, to brawls over toiletpaper in supermarket aisles, civilised society seemed on the brink of collapse.

Even ANZAC Day was cancelled – or so we thought, until some bright spark suggested an alternative that turned out pretty damn good on the day. And, our ‘new normal’ settled into its own rhythm and life as we knew it just a few months ago now seemed a distant memory.

This crisis is far from over, however – and probably won’t be until we get a vaccine – which means it could literally be years before we get back to what we once thought was normal.

So for now, as a military magazine, all we can do is report on what happened in the first few months of this global crisis, from an Australian perspective – from our own perspective, which has been hamstrung by all kinds of lockdowns, including personal travel – and including Defence information dissemination.

I won’t bang on about Defence’s ‘information vacuum’ and how Operation COVID-19 Assist starkly contrasts with Op Bushfire Assist 19-20 from a PR perspective, except to say the two couldn’t be more different – blanket coverage across the bushfire effort, compared to smothering any real substance in COVID-19 coverage with a blanket.

But, what little info Defence did issue (or was allowed to issue) was enough for us to scrape together this report without leaving the confines of our self-isolation.

Defence established a COVID-19 taskforce led by Lieutenant General John Frewen in mid March, which saw a peak of just over 4000 ADF personnel deployed on an amazing range of tasks.

Prominent among them – and later controversial for Victoria’s resistance – was quarantine compliance checks.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the ADF would provide mainly logistics support for state and territory police as they enforced mandatory quarantine and isolation measures.

“In New South Wales, more than 30 ADF personnel deployed to Sydney Airport to support state police, with at least another 40 supporting the quarantine of six separate hotels,” Minister

Reynolds said of the initial deployments, which were to ramp up much further.

“In Queensland, around a dozen ADF personnel deployed to Brisbane Airport and Cairns Airport to support state police.

“Another dozen personnel are supporting the quarantine of a hotel in Cairns.

“Fifty ADF personnel have been approved to deploy in Western Australia to support quarantine measures for new arrivals.

“A small number have already supported the movement of baggage from Fremantle to Perth Airport and Rottnest Island Ferry Terminal.”

She said the ADF was working with other state and territory authorities to determine their support requirements and stand ready to provide that support at short notice – the first indications of Victoria’s pushback against having ‘troops in any public-facing roles’.

As it turned out, most Australians welcomed and even demanded to see their troops deployed in this crisis, just as they did in the preceding bushfires.

But it could have been different – it could have been as Victoria feared.

Even Lieutenant General Frewen felt a need to issue a statement pleading with Aussies to support their troops.

His plea came in the wake of ill-informed and largely ignorant, hysterical, negative and potentially dangerous social media suggestions that the ADF’s involvement in compulsory

41

LEFT: Private Kyle Jones assists NSW Police at a New South Wales/Victoria border crossing. Photo by Petty Officer Jake Badior.

RIGHT: Soldiers from 8/9RAR assist NSW Police at Mulwala, west of Albury – one of several Murray River crossings that required around-the-clock manning. Photo by Corporal David Cotton.

isolation of people returning from overseas was ‘proof’ that Australia was under martial law.

“In light of the Prime Minister’s significant announcement, I wanted to provide some reassurance to the Australian Defence Force and the wider community,” Lieutenant General Frewen said.

“For more than 100 years, our military has been defending Australia and protecting Australians.

“We most recently saw this over summer, when thousands of regular and reserve personnel mobilised in a matter of days to help their fellow Australians in bushfire-affected areas.

42

“We are now answering the call again to help save lives and protect livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ADF has been providing planning, logistics and contacttracing support to the whole-of-government response.

“When requested, we will assist the states and territories in two ways – by supporting mandatory quarantine arrangements for air arrivals into Australia and by checking self-isolation orders are being followed in homes and residences.”

He reiterated earlier lines that the ADF did not have law-enforcement powers but were assisting civilian agencies as they undertook their important work.

“When you see Defence personnel at airports or on the streets, remember, they are part of the communities they are trying to help – they are answering the call, as Defence has done for more than a century.

“I have every confidence the ADF will serve you well.

Please support them as they support you.”

One very tangible and ultimately rewarding support task was that of Australian Army engineers deployed to medical face-mask manufacturer Med-Con in regional Victoria to help increase production of medical face masks when national stockpiles of that very crucial item were shamefully inadequate, and foreign

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Leading Aircraftwoman Georgia Smith, No. 1 Expeditionary Health Squadron, takes a nose swab at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Photo by Leading Aircraftman John Solomon.

Army Lieutenant Mia Parsons, 1st Close Health Battalion, takes a swab in Shepparton, Victoria. Photo by Private Dustin Anderson.

Navy Lieutenant Sophie Cunningham, Navy HQ Tasmania, accounts for COVID-19 testing equipment at a community testing site in Melbourne. Photo by Leading Aircraftman John Solomon.

suppliers were either unable to keep up with world demand – or unwilling to ship overseas in the face of their own domestic demands.

This Army callout was one of the early signs of a new federal-government talk-up of sovereign-industry capacity.

Minister for Defence Reynolds said the Army team at Med-Con, which was comprised of highly qualified engineering maintenance specialists from the Army Logistic Training Centre and the Joint Logistics Unit – Victoria, filled a short-term staffing gap while the company sought to recruit and train new people.

“This is a good example of the kind of exceptional circumstances that Defence Aid to the Civil Community (DACC) rules are designed to cover,” she said.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said that from helping them to access new equipment to providing staff, the Army was doing what it could to enable companies such as Med-Con to ramp up production and boost domestic capacity.

“There’s a lot of fear in the community at the moment but Australians should know that work is happening to help us best respond to this unfolding crisis,” she said.

“This is important work, but it’s also essential we get it right – this equipment needs to be produced to the highest standards.”

With logistics staff on hand, Med-Con ramped up production from its two serviceable mask-making machines to full capacity – and with Army engineers on hand, they rebuilt a broken machine and got

it back in service in a third of the time they had anticipated.

Not only that – as the engineers made spare parts to fix the broken machine and learned how it worked and how it was made, they produced a technical data package to permit the manufacture of more machines.

Head of CASG’s Land Systems Division Major General Andrew Bottrell said this was a huge task that included the use of computer aided design tools, 3D scanners and old-school instruments, and at its peak saw seven volunteers working 12-hour days, seven days a week.

“In all, more than 1300 models of the required components were created in under 19 days and had it not been for the technical mastery of our Land Engineering Agency, Special Operations Logistics Squadron and Joint Logistics team, this task would surely not have been completed,” he said.

The complete data package to have the machines built was handed over to Med-Con on 27 March and, after further due diligence and consideration of the potential size and timeline of the pandemic, Med-Con decided to commission further new machines and, now with a total of 10 currently running 24/7, producing millions of facemasks every week – which was very fortuitous, as the Victorian government found itself in the midst of a dreaded ‘second wave’ of community transmission and mandated the wearing of facemasks in public.

While we have no desire to comment on the rights and wrongs of what happened in Victoria, it is a matter

of fact that Defence Minister Reynolds announced three times that large numbers of ADF were being sent to Victoria – only to see those numbers never reflected in official Defence updates.

It is also a fact that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told a Federal Government Committee in August that he did “not believe Australian Defence Force support was offered to help run Victoria’s hotel quarantine scheme” – and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds came out swinging in response.

“Victorian authorities consistently advised Defence officials that its assistance was not required for any “public facing roles” in Victoria.

“On 28 March 2020, Victorian authorities advised that Victoria was not seeking ADF assistance with mandatory quarantine arrangements,” a position Minister Reynolds said was reaffirmed to ADF officials

by Victorian authorities more than once.

As things got worse in Victoria, however, the police commissioner in charge of Victoria’s emergency response to COVID-19 made a request on 24 June for 850 ADF personnel to assist with hotel quarantine compliance – but was forced to formally withdrawn the request 24 hours later – about which Premier Andrews said the request was not made by a properly authorised member of the Victorian government!

I guess history, formal inquiries and the court of public opinion will ultimately judge Victoria’s performance.

Another shining example of whole-of-government and Defence Aid to the Civil Community working well

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

43

LEFT: An Australian Army soldier and New South Wales Police plan quarantine compliance checks in Sydney. Photo

by Corporal Chris Beerens.

ABOVE: ADF personnel from Adelaide, South Australia, disembark a RAAF C-130J Hercules at Melbourne Jet Base.

Photo by Leading Aircraftman John Solomon.

was demonstrated in Tasmania when 50 members of the ADF and seven AUSMAT (Australian Medical Assistance Team) health professionals deployed within hours of callout to run two co-located hospitals hit by a COVID-19 outbreak among staff.

Once in location, the team – which included ADF doctors, nurses, a pharmacist, a radiographer, an environmental health officer and a small group of general support personnel – reopened and operated the facility’s emergency department, providing essential health services to more than 400 patients from the rural region while hospital staff were quarantined for two weeks.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said Defence prioritised the request following notification from Emergency Management Australia, as part of the National Coordination Mechanism.

“The temporary closure of the North West Regional Hospital and its emergency department would deprive the community of much-needed medical assistance at a crucial time,” Minister Reynolds said.

“The deployment of Defence medical practitioners will ensure critical services are maintained.”

Minister for Health Greg Hunt said the rapid deployment was further evidence of Australia’s worldclass health system in action and the scalable nature of the Australian government’s response to COVID-19.

“AUSMAT is one of a few World Health Organization globally verified Type-2 Emergency Medical Teams in the world,” Minister Hunt said.

44

Minister Reynolds said this was the first time the ADF had been called on to help operate a domestic hospital.

“Within just a matter of hours of being tasked, the team was heading to Tasmania to assist.

“For more than two weeks, they provided support to the people of north-west Tasmania, including enhanced infection control, primary care, acute resuscitation, minor procedures and consulting care.

“Just like we saw through Operation Bushfire Assist, the ADF’s support under Operation COVID-19 Assist is a testament to the professionalism of the ADF.” A formal handover process back to NWRH staff began online and was followed by two days of physical induction on 28/29 April before the emergency team flew home on a RAAF Hercules.

Even while providing all this community support – and continuing current operations overseas – Defence was also affected by the virus, picking up more than 80 confirmed infections of its own.

The first two were well documented – the two Sydneybased co-workers, who were diagnosed on 8 March and had visited Russell Offices nine days earlier, were isolated in Sydney until they recovered.

Since then, there has been a fairly steady stream of infections – and, thankfully, recoveries – but with little information forthcoming.

Defence has maintained a steadfast lockdown on specific COVID-19 infection information, except for actual numbers, rough dates and general locations, with one notable exception – that of a case contracted

in PNG, when significant information was pumped out to the media (probably for diplomatic reasons).

Almost half of Defence’s infections were contracted ‘overseas’ (into which we read ‘Middle East’, except for that one PNG case).

Of those contracted in Australia, 18 (at time of writing) were contracted in Melbourne – the vast majority during the ‘second wave’ – but, we have no idea whether those affected were Melbourne based or deployed on Op COVID-19 Assist (but if I was a betting man…).

Speaking of overseas – our troops on long deployments in the Middle East, separated from family and friends for six months or more, were not exempt from mandatory hotel quarantine when they returned home – nor should they have been – but we did feel sympathy seeing them herded on to busses by their A-based comrades. At least the accommodation was better than they’d been used to.

US Marines were also quarantined on arrival into Australia – though not in the same luxury – as a modified Marine Rotational Force–Darwin rotation went ahead not quite as originally planned.

And, after all-but shutting down face-to-face training and exercises, the Army slowly began to re-emerge around mid June, with several not-usually-PR-worthy activities mentioned for their returning-to-normalness.

RAAF and Navy, on the other hand didn’t really skip a beat that we noticed – deploying ships and planes all over the western Pacific on Panda-poking freedom tests – and eventually to an at-sea-only RIMPAC 2020…

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

ABOVE: Troopers Clive Fletcher and Kenneth Fitzgerald,10th Light Horse, assist WA Police with mandatory quarantine arrangements at a Perth hotel. Photo by Leading Seaman Ronnie Baltoft.

RIGHT: Able Seaman Greg Hallet and Petty Officer Jasmine Marsland assist travelers going into quarantine at the Sofitel Wentworth Hotel, Sydney. Photo by Petty Officer Justin Brown.

FAR RIGHT: Leading Aircraftwoman Eryn Shipp and Leading Aircraftman Sean Bista deliver a bag to a guest undergoing quarantine at the Intercontinental, Sydney. Photo by David Said.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

45

ALL AT SEA RIMPAC

2020

Four Royal Australian Navy warships joined another 18 ships, one submarine, multiple aircraft and 5300 personnel from nine other nations for all-at-sea Exercise Rim of the Pacific off Hawaii.

RIMPAC ran from 17 to 31 August and was conducted as an at-sea-only event because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commander of the Australian Contingent Captain Phillipa Hay said RIMPAC was the pinnacle of highend military exercises.

“RIMPAC is a real test of Australia’s maritime military capability, from warfighting exercises to missile firings,” she said.

“It provides complex and challenging training in a multinational environment, perfect for strengthening interoperability with our regional partners and allies.”

This year’s exercise included participants from Brunei, Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and, of course, the United States.

Participating forces exercised a wide range of capabilities, such as anti-submarine warfare, maritime intercept operations, and live-fire training events.

HMA Ships Hobart, Stuart, Arunta and Sirius, which had recently been part of a regional deployment through South-East Asia, took full advantage of RIMPAC. Hobart, Stuart and Arunta all had opportunities to fire missiles – Arunta being the first Australian frigate to complete the Anzac Midlife Capability Assurance Program (AMCAP) upgrade to do so since her upgrade.

HMAS Sirius played a big part too, helping to distribute more than 50 million litres of fuel during the two-week exercise.

Commanding officer of Arunta Commander Troy Duggan said the firing demonstrated the lethality of 46

the upgraded Anzac-class frigate and its world-class Australian systems.

“This is the first time an AMCAP frigate has participated in RIMPAC, and demonstrates the capability of the new phased array radar suite as an integrated sensor for the combat system,” Commander Duggan said.

Completed in 2019, the upgrade provides the Anzac-class frigates the first CEAFAR2-L long-range phased-array air search radar.

This world-leading radar technology was designed and built in Australia to provide long-range situational awareness to the ship and allied units.

Missile firings were conducted on the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Hawaii.

The range used remote-controlled drones to simulate missile attack profiles against Arunta, and the ship engaged them with surface-to-air missiles.

Commander Duggan said the ship’s company had trained extensively for the event.

“These sorts of complex warfighting exercises with multinational partners demonstrate that the Royal Australian Navy is able to operate seamlessly with other highly advanced navies in our region,” he said.

HMAS Hobart also become the first of Australia’s Hobart-class air warfare destroyers to conduct a missile launch during RIMPAC, cementing its title as the most sophisticated and lethal warship ever operated by the RAN. Commanding Officer Hobart Commander Ryan Gaskin said the missile firing proved the ship was ready to fight and win at sea as part of a joint force.

HMAS Hobart carries a range of weapons systems, including a Mk41 vertical-launch missile system

The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon conducts a replenishment at sea with Australian oiler HMAS Sirius during RIMPAC 2020. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Devin M. Langer.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

47

Far left top: Able Seaman Jett Mitchell at the gun-director platform for a live missile firing on HMAS Arunta. Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

Far left centre: Seaman Bodhi Greenham fires an F89 Minimi at a ‘killer tomato’ surface target from HMAS Arunta. Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

Left: Leading Seaman Zachery Philp on board HMAS Stuart. Photo by Leading Seaman Christopher Szumlanski.

Bottom left: Lieutenant Commander Leonard Woodman from HMAS Arunta, conducts a safety check of the fuel-receiver bell mouth during a replenishment at sea with USNS Henry J Kaiser.

Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

Right: Sailors on HMAS Arunta prepare to tie up alongside in Hawaii . Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

Right top: Captain Phillipa Hay on the bridge of HMAS Hobart. Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

Right bottom: HMAS Stuart crewmembers conduct boarding-party training on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat. Photo by Leading Seaman Christopher Szumlanski.

Far right: HMAS Arunta fires an SM-2 missile. Photo by Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez.

containing SM-2 and Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles, a Mk 45 5-inch gun, Phalanx close-in weapons system, two 25mm Typhoon guns, and MU90 and Mk54 light-weight torpedoes.

Australia’s impact on RIMPAC 2020 extended to more than just our ships and missiles, as Royal Australian Navy Captain Phillipa Hay became the first non-US military woman to command a task force in the 49-year history of Exercise Rim of the Pacific.

Captain Hay also commanded more than 2500 sailors and officers across 11 warships from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the Philippines and the USA. The only other woman to command a taskforce on RIMPAC was now-retired US Vice Admiral Nora Tyson in 2016.

While acknowledging the honour of being the first Australian woman to command a task force, Captain Hay said her focus was on representing the men and women of the Royal Australian Navy and leading her force.

“RIMPAC is a test of Australia’s maritime military capability, from warfighting exercises to the missile firings,” she said.

“It provides complex and challenging training in a multinational environment, perfect for strengthening interoperability with our regional partners and allies.

“I am proud to be part of an Australian force which, with our partners and allies, can continue to train and operate in these challenging times.

48

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

First Aussie woman to command Task Force 1 “It demonstrates our collective grit and resilience.”

Captain Hay has always been a trailblazer.

At age 10, she sailed around the world with her family.

In 1993, she joined the RAN and was selected for an exchange with the US Navy in USS John Young in the Middle East.

She was the first Australian female to qualify as a ship’s diver and first female to serve in the Australian Minor War Vessel Sea Training Group.

Last year Captain Hay also became the inaugural task group commander of Australia’s regional engagement mission in the South West Pacific.

She said she had found her niche in the RAN, which affords its people the room to succeed regardless of gender, sexuality or religion.

“In the Royal Australian Navy, there are no limitations,” Captain Hay said.

“We pride ourselves on richness of diversity and being a reflection of the Australian community.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

“I look around and see only proud sailors and officers serving the Navy and Australia.

“I hope my journey serves as an inspiration to all who wish to serve.”

Captain Hay said her success was driven by a desire to contribute to the harmony and stability of the region and know that her children would benefit and enjoy a peaceful life.

For that reason, she said she was proud to participate in RIMPAC alongside like-minded nations.

“International naval cooperation ensures maritime security and stability,” she said.

“The global maritime environment is too large and complex for any one nation to safeguard.

“RIMPAC helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of our seas’ security.”

49

PACIFIC PRESENCE

An E-7A Wedgetail from No. 2 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, leads three F/A-18A Hornets from No.77 Squadron and an EA-18G Growler from No. 6 Squadron over a Royal Australian Navy task group consisting of (from top) HMA Ships Arunta, Canberra, Sirius, Hobart and Stuart during a Regional Presence Deployment in the Phillipine Sea in July 2020.

WITH TENSIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN, JAPAN AND OTHERS ON A VERY TETCHY FOOTING, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES CONDUCTED A NAVAL PASSAGE IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA IN JULY – ONE OF SEVERAL THIS YEAR With HMA Ships Canberra, Hobart, Stuart, Arunta and Sirius taking part, the activity included replenishmentat-sea, aviation-operations, maritime-manoeuvre and communications drills.

Commander of the Australian Joint Task Group Commodore Michael Harris said the opportunity to work alongside Japan and the US was invaluable.

“Maintaining security and safety at sea requires navies to be able to cooperate seamlessly,” Commodore Harris said.

“The combined activities between our navies demonstrates a high degree of interoperability and capability between Australia, Japan and the US.” Commander of Japan’s Escort Division 4 Captain Sakano Yusuke said strengthening cooperation with the US Navy and Royal Australian Navy was vitally important for Japan and contributed to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

“The experience in this exercise will give us tactical and operational advantages and make our friendships stronger, in addition to our regular joint exercises with both likeminded navies,” Captain Sakano said.

Commanding Officer USS Antietam Captain Russ Caldwell said the US Navy routinely exercised with regional partners, showing their shared commitment to regional stability and a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“The relationships we’ve developed enable us to meet at sea and immediately operate at an advanced level,” Captain Caldwell said.

“This highlights the enduring nature of our alliances with Japan and Australia.

“The United States is fortunate to routinely operate alongside its allies across the Indo-Pacific and coordinated operations like these reinforce our mutual commitment to international maritime norms and promoting regional stability.”

50

More than 150 RAAF personnel along with strike, surveillance and transport aircraft from RAAF Bases Amberley and Williamtown deployed to Guam to join the naval exercises.

A C-17 Globemaster, E-7A Wedgetail, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare attack fighter and six F/A-18A fighter jets, flew to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, assisted by two KC-30A multi-role tanker transports that supported the transit with in-air refuelling – including between each other.

The air exercises also included Guam-based US Air Force fighters and bombers – including the mighty B-1B – and the full carrier based suite of aircraft from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said training of integrated air and sea forces was an important progression in the joint-force capability.

“Some of our most advanced capabilities including the EA-18G Growler and the guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart [integrated] in a combined air and sea environment,” Minister Reynolds said.

“This deployment demonstrated Defence as a capable force, with an ability to conduct complex and extended deployments at sea and in the air organically and with our regional partners.

“Exercising as a joint force across air and sea allows the Navy and Air Force to understand each other’s warfighting activities, to fight better in the maritime environment, make decisions quickly and fully employ their forces across multiple domains.”

The trilateral passage concluded – with only minor and professional interactions with Chinese assets – in late July with some ships heading home and the rest proceeding to Hawaii for an at-sea-only RIMPAC 2020.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

51

WORDS - BRIAN HARTIGAN - LIEUTENANT GEOFF LONG SUB LIEUTENANT JOSEPH MELBIN - ABLE SEAMAN JARROD MULVIHILL - LIEUTENANT COMMANDER CHRISTOPHER THORNTON PHOTOS - ABLE SEAMAN JARROD MULVIHILL

FIRST-OF-TYPE FLIGHT TRIALS ON LHD L01 HMAS ADELAIDE 52

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

MH-60R HMAS Adelaide left her home port in Sydney at the end of March, with her main mission to conduct firstof-class flight trials for the MH-60R ‘Romeo’ helicopter.

While the trials were number-one priority, it was also an opportunity for other ship’s departments to trial and train in their own specialties on the seven-week voyage along the NSW and Queensland coasts.

But, for the helicopters – even though they had operated from the ship before – this was a specific mission to determine the safe operating limits of the Romeo helicopter on the landing helicopter dock (LHD) ship in a range of sea states and wind speeds, by day and night.

Adelaide’s Commanding Officer Captain Jonathan Ley said the helicopter testing and other training on were essential to ensure Navy maintained readiness.

“The results [of the flight trials] will provide a new standard of operational capability, informing how Navy can employ the MH-60R and LHD together in the future to increase both lethality in combat, and responsiveness during humanitarian assistance and disaster relief tasks,” Captain Ley said.

And, all this activity and operational preparedness was to be conducted in light of the Australian Defence Force’s support of and compliance with Australian government COVID-19 efforts and restrictions.

Captain Ley said Navy had put in place strict measures on its ships to ensure the continuation of essential training while preserving the health and welfare of its people.

All crew on Adelaide were screened for COVID-19 symptoms before departure and, at sea, all health threats, including communicable diseases such as COVID-19, were carefully and deliberately considered as part of force health protection.

Major fleet units deploy with a medical officer or an appropriately trained medical team who are capable of screening and providing care to any personnel with symptoms – and Adelaide was no exception, equipped as she is with her own ‘small hospital’.

“Adelaide is currently the Navy’s high readiness vessel and may be tasked by the government to respond to emergencies across the region, including support to civil authorities in Australia, or overseas, Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

in their efforts against COVID-19 [or any other contingency],” Captain Ley said.

“It is imperative that we maintain that high readiness capability, and provide reassurance to government that ADF can respond quickly, even in times of crisis.”

The MH-60R ‘Romeo’ helicopter, based at 816 Squadron in Nowra, New South Wales, is the Navy’s next-generation submarine and ship hunter.

The first-of-type flight trials were a crucial testing process to establish the true extent of how the MH-60R would operate in the maritime environment on Navy’s various platforms, including on LHDs. Lieutenant Commander Chris Broadbent, Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Trials Unit, said the trials included aviation-facilities assessments, equipment calibration, and evaluation of the interface between a particular helicopter type and class of ship.

“While MH-60R aircraft have been used on HMA Ships Adelaide and Canberra for some time, new tests are required to determine what safe operating limits they can achieve when working together,” he said.

“We have a three-week program where we can fly the helicopters day and night, in different sea states and approaching different locations on the flight deck under varying conditions and aircraft configurations.

“Even the aircraft’s behaviour in different ambient air temperatures will provide us with important data.”

AMAFTU is not the only organisation to benefit from the flight trials onboard Adelaide, with the ship’s own aviation support team also conducting deck handling and crash-on-deck exercises to improve their familiarity with the ‘Romeo’ helicopter.

Chief Petty Officer Aviation Justin Penrose said the flight trials provided vital training to the ship’s aviationsupport sailors.

“This is a great opportunity for them to develop their understanding of the roles and responsibilities required of an aviation-support sailor at sea,” CPO Penrose said.

Aviation-support sailors manage the movements and deck systems of all types of Navy and Army – even foreign visitor – helicopters both on shore and at sea.

One of the pilots involved in the ‘Romeo’ flight trials was experienced AMAFTU test pilot Lieutenant Commander Michael Hardy, who is still following his childhood dream of flying helicopters for the Royal Australian Navy.

As a boy living in Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales, near the home of Navy’s Fleet Air Arm at HMAS Albatross, Lieutenant Commander Hardy grew up watching Westland Sea King and Douglas A4 Skyhawk aircraft flying over his community.

Leap forward 38 years after joining the Navy and you could say Lieutenant Commander Hardy’s career has really taken off.

ROMEO 53

54

As a reservist he is a test pilot with Navy’s Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Test Unit and as a civilian he is also a test pilot with one of the major helicopter manufacturers.

He has more than 5000 flying hours in military helicopters such as the MH-60R Romeo and the UH-60 Black Hawk.

“My civilian job is very similar to what I do at AMAFTU – I just travel a lot more and test-fly helicopters of other military forces,” he said.

“I conduct experimental, production and maintenance flight testing, as well as providing pilot training on Sikorsky Seahawks, including the MH-60R (Romeo) and UH-60M Black Hawks.”

But it wasn’t just Romeo’s that Adelaide got to ‘play’ with on this trip, with embarked MRH-90 Taipans and especially Queensland-based CH47F Chinook helicopters taking advantage of the visiting LHD in their waters.

The CH-47s conducted night and day deck landings that would also qualify them to support future operations requiring their heavier-lift capability.

Commander Leon Volz, HMAS Adelaide’s Commander Air, said the the visitors were from the Army’s 5th Aviation Regiment from RAAF Base Townsville.

“Adelaide provided the CH-47 element the opportunity for Army aircrew to gain Deck Landing Qualifications as well as providing training and journal progression for new members of the ship’s aviation team,” Commander Volz said.

“Once the CH-47 aircrew have completed their qualification it will allow 5 Aviation’s CH-47 force to be ready to provide heavy-lift capability from the LHDs in support of humanitarian-aid and disasterrelief (HADR) missions as well as amphibious operations.”

But, some helicopters didn’t even land on the ship during some sorties, honing skills in vertical stores lift and even personnel hoisting.

HMAS Adelaide pulled in to Townsville for supplies and fuel shortly after dawn on 23 April.

She was still there at dawn on ANZAC Day – and, while Australia’s ANZAC Day commemorations were very different this year, no reports were published as to how HMAS Adelaide’s ships company spent their ANZAC Day. As far as CONTACT can glean from photographic evidence, a lone crewmember stood silent vigil at the foot of the gangway on ANZAC Day to greet the dawn.

HMAS Adelaide spent a further nine days in port, with strict border controls preventing crew going in to Townsville.

HMAS Adelaide Executive Officer Commander Jace Hutchison said the ship had put in place strict protocols for the resupply visit and followed whole-of-government guidance in relation to COVID-19.

“It is important that we maintain humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief (HADR) capability and readiness, but the health and well-being of our people and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 was our highest priority,” Commander Hutchison said.

On 4 May, Adelaide was back at sea.

As well as helicopter operations, she also supported a variety of other exercises to maintain a range of capabilities, including landing craft training, damage-control routines, assault-guide training, diver training and shooting.

The Queensland coast provided a picture perfect training ground for the ship’s dive team to keep their diving qualifications current.

The 10-strong ship’s dive team participated in exercises off Townsville that helped satisfy training commitments for diving emergency drills, which need to be regularly certified.

Other dive training included buddy-diver techniques and work-diver signaling.

Sailors and officers who make up a ship’s dive team can come from any department and the team in HMAS Adelaide comprises a

cross-section of the ship’s company, including marine technicians, boatswains mates, maritime warfare officers and combat systems operators.

Maritime warfare officer and ship’s dive team member Midshipman Alastair Wyatt said having a broad selection of skillsets brought useful capability to the ship.

“The dive team can be called upon at any time to rectify defects or support the ship from the underwater environment,” Midshipman Wyatt said.

“Scheduled dives to inspect the ship’s hull and propulsion system are conducted several times a month and this, coupled with training dives, means that the ship’s dive team remains very active.”

More urgent tasking such as the removal of fishing nets from the propellers or stabilisers may also be required.

Able Seaman Boatswains Mate Malik El-Leissy said all of the Adelaide dive team shared a passion for diving and were keen to sharpen their skills.

“The Queensland coast is an ideal setting for dive exercises and allows us to practise emergency drills and other essential training,” he said.

Members of the team undergo specific training to become ship’s divers, covering safety in the underwater environment, diving medical emergency procedures and Navy-specific diving techniques that focus on the unique environment that a ship’s diver could encounter when part of a dive team.

Midshipman Wyatt said the training had been one of the most rewarding aspects of his career.

“I have not been disappointed with my choice to become a Navy diver and would recommend it to anyone looking for a similarly positive experience,” he said.

As HMAS Adelaide began to move south again for home, her 130-strong engineering team had reason to look proudly back at their achievements of the year to date, especially during the challenging maintenance period that kicked the year off, all the while maintaining and operating her complex power, aviation and combat system.

However, it was Adelaide’s scheduled external maintenance period (EMP) earlier in the year that set the team up for success, according to refit liaison officer Lieutenant Mark Lawley.

“With 299 planned maintenance jobs completed, 275 defects rectified and 10 engineering changes implemented, the external maintenance period was an enriching and engaging experience,” Lieutenant Lawley said.

“During this time there were no significant safety incidents, which is a significant achievement considering the complexity and scale of the work that was done.

“Major engineering tasks included maintenance of the gas-turbine exhaust, an upgrade of the advanced stabilised glide-slope indicator (ASGSI), recovery of flight-deck lighting, progression of Nulka defensive system upgrade preparatory work, surveillance radar maintenance, and a new ‘set-top box’ upgrade.”

But, even with some of these tasks incomplete, and with five Defenceindustry civilians staying on board to conclude activities as she sailed, HMAS Adelaide was tasked to Operation Bushfire Assist on 4 January.

And now, after another busy and challenging block of sea time, HMAS Adelaide left the warmer waters of the north behind her and was back near homeport Sydney, conducting manoeuvres with NUSHIP Sydney on the day of that ship’s historic commissioning at sea as HMAS Sydney (V).

HMAS Adelaide, highly capable and freshly exercised, remains on standby as the Navy’s high-readiness vessel, prepared for any task ordered by the Australian government.

55

FUTURE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

56

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

AUSTRALIA’SAMPHIBIOUSCAPABILITY – WHERE TO FROM HERE? ‘ AMPHIBIOUS WARFARE IS THE MOST COMPLEX PROPOSITION FOR THE FUTURE OF ADF COMBAT POWER DEVELOPMENT TO 2025.’

- CHIEF OF NAVY - 2005 WORDS - ZACHARIE WRIGHT-HANSEN REPRODUCED FROM THE COVE ith growing instability across the world, focus must be put into refinement of Defence acquisition of reliable equipment, sustainment of our ready force and accurate training scenarios, to ensure Defence’s ability to protect Australia but also project force as the government deems necessary.

Babones (2019) explains the United States may no longer be in a position to come to Australia’s defence, yet Australia still only spends 1.8% of its gross domestic product on defence (in 2019).

Is this enough? Are all of Australia’s latest projects purely capability driven or also political in nature?

W

THE FLEET’S WAY FORWARD

The Royal Australian Navy has experienced significant changes in the past decade in light of growing responsibility and tasking.

Navy’s tempo is increasing, which is in part due to the operational focus being shifted closer to home and the growing requirement for humanitarian response.

All of its vessels and aircraft are either being replaced or a replacement is being planned within a 10-year timeframe.

But, with the climate moving from counter-insurgency and piracy to the potential of more significant hostilities, balanced with supplementing disaster response, thought must be given to the effective capacity of current and future platforms.

The first government-listed purpose of the 2016 White Paper outlines priority on ‘[investment in] more capable, agile and potent future force that has greater capacity to respond to strategic risk’.

Does the current capability match the White Paper’s purpose or intent?

CURRENT AMPHIBIOUS CAPABILITY Recent incidents in the Indo-Pacific and South West Pacific have shown the critical importance of an amphibious capability.

If tensions escalate, the ability for Australia to project power is crucial for the defence of itself as well as our pacific partners.

57

If the ability – or willingness – of the United States to project force is coming into question, who will take their place?

The RAN defines its amphibious warfare force as having ‘mobility in mass; a unique cross-domain mobility; and, being useful across the full spectrum of military operations’.

One could argue that the concentration of Australia’s amphibious force in two large, costly and slow moving vessels, i.e. the landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships, could be counter to a ‘mobile force’ and be at risk of exploitation by potential adversaries.

United States Marine Corps Commandant, General David H. Berger (2019), highlights ‘it would be illogical to concentrate our forces on a few large ships’.

Therefore is it worth Australia taking the advantage by forward planning new approaches to traditional ‘amphibious platforms’ through developing a new type of amphibious deployability tailored to our operational theatres as an island nation?

NEXT STEPS FOR CAPABILITY TROOP DEPLOYMENT If past RIMPAC and Talisman Sabre exercises have shown Australia anything, it is that speed is key. Getting boots on the ground as soon as possible is a key requirement, especially in contested territory.

Fleet concentrations can only protect an asset for so long when a requirement to ‘dock down’ for many hours exists while preforming an amphibious landing from one concentrated asset.

Investigating smaller and modular vessels to transport troops and/or equipment will enable more agile and flexible force concentration throughout a task group and the ability to react to situations.

The loss of a single ship does not end the ability to project force when you have multiple landing ships with the same mission.

Sun Tzu says, ‘whether to concentrate or to divide your troops, must be decided by circumstances’.

You do not have this option when your landing forces are all concentrated on one or two assets.

POTENTIAL POINTS OF INVESTIGATION ‘Crossover’ frigate platforms are smaller, modular ships that are the size of a frigate but can serve as an amphibious assault ship if fitted that way.

Vavasser (2019) reports that the ‘Crossover’ is a new design introduced as the next step in what frigates can bring in capabilities at sea.

Tilt-rotor aircraft enable troops and supplies to be flown ashore at the speed of a fixed wing but can land in more remote locations, including on current amphibious vessels.

This capability could heavily complement the current mission-support helicopters operated from RAN vessels in taking up a specific amphibious landing role, ensuring troops get to shore faster to achieve their mission.

Modular logistics solutions enable users to transport stores and equipment by air, land or sea just as they are operated ashore.

58

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

The benefit of a modular transportable stores solution is it reduces man-hours of packing and preparation and increased accountability as each unit is adjustable and lockable.

INNOVATIVE STRATEGIC POLICY Refining the ADF’s ability to be agile during current and future operations is vital.

This is reiterated by Graham (2019) saying that ‘ADF needs risk-worthy platforms – the ADF concentrates too much capability in too few platforms’.

When you include factors such as growing regional instability and environmental or humanitarian events, a combination of relatively few events may be enough of a cataclysm to overstretch and saturate the ADF’s ability to react.

How can the ADF adapt to changing theatres? Can the ADF maintain a strong capable force to protect freedom of navigation, trade and strategic assets at the request of the Australian government, with the current asset and fleet structure? Could the ADF react to both a force projection and humanitarian tasking simultaneously or with short reconstitution times?

While the current amphibious capability may suffice for now, we need to explore these questions if we are to be ready for the challenges of the future.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Able Seaman Zacharie Wright-Hansen joined the Navy in 2014 as an avionics technician. His first posting was to 808 Squadron working on the MRH-90 helicopters, followed by two years on a sea-going flight working on replenishment and amphibious vessels, then back to 808 Squadron to run the tool store section.

REFERENCES Babones, S. (2019) The National Interest ‘If Australia Wants Collective Defense, Then It Should Get Its Own Navy in Ship Shape’ Commonwealth of Australia (2016) Defence White Paper 2016 Graham, E. (2019) The Strategist ‘Lessons for Australia in US Marines’ new guidance’ McLeary, P. (2019) Breaking Defense ‘Sacred cows die as Marine Commandant Changes course on Amphibs’ Sun Tzu (2019) The Art of War Vavasseur. X (2019) Naval News ‘IMDEX 2019: DAMEN to Answer Singapore’s MRCV Requirement with Fit for Purpose CROSSOVER Design’

59

HISTORIC HMAS

SYDNEY V COMMISSIONED AT SEA On 18 May 2020, the Royal Australian Navy welcomed its newest and most potent warship into the fleet, commissioning HMAS Sydney at sea.

HMAS Sydney’s commissioning was a truly historic event – the first and only time an Australian ‘warship’ was commissioned underway at sea in peacetime – one similar event occurring during WWII when a small 186-ton stores carrier called HMAS Matafele was commissioned on 1 January 1943 in Papuan waters.

But, HMAS Sydney is a world-class warship, the finest ever commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy, with improvements built in that her older sisters Hobart and Brisbane will have to have retrofitted.

HMAS Sydney’s commissioning off the coast of New South Wales was necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions and the Chief of Navy’s desire that her entry into service not be delayed.

During her commissioning ceremony, Sydney’s first Commanding Officer Commander Edward Seymour read the ship’s commissioning order before the Australian white ensign was hoisted, signifying the exact moment the 147-metre-long AWD became one of Her Majesty’s Australian Ships.

Commander Seymour said he was proud to lead the ship’s company and carry forward the legacy of previous Australian warships that carried the name.

“It isn’t often in a naval career you commission a brand-new warship, but to do so at sea and carrying the significant legacy of the name Sydney, is a special feeling for the entire ship’s company,” he said.

60

“A lot of hard teamwork has led us to this moment, bringing a world-class warship into the fleet and we’re eager to now prove what Sydney can do.”

Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Michael Noonan said that as the fifth warship to bear the name, HMAS Sydney (V) inherited an important legacy.

Sydney is the last of the three Hobart-class vessels built for Navy at Osborne in South Australia, based on the Navantia F100 frigate design.

She is equipped with advanced combat systems, providing the ship with layered offensive and defensive capabilities to counter conventional and asymmetric threats.

On top of the impressive array of offensive and defensive weapons and systems common to the Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, however, Sydney was technically upgraded during her build to fully integrate the MH-60R ‘Romeo’ Seahawk submarinehunting helicopter and carry the Phalnyx close-in weapons systems, making her Australia’s most lethal warship.

HMAS Sydney’s commissioning was followed by her test and evaluation period where all systems and capabilities were assessed before she was fully integrated into the fleet.

Her crew also developed – and will continue to do so – their proficiencies with her cutting-edge Aegis combat system.

Sydney and her sister ships, Hobart and Brisbane, are all based at Garden Island in Sydney.

HMAS Sydney’s first Commanding Officer Commander Edward Seymour salutes his crew.

RIGHT: The Australian White Ensign is hoisted, signifying the exact moment the 147-metre-long AWD became one of Her Majesty’s Australian Ships.

Above left and right by Petty Officer Tom Gibson Bottom by Able Seaman Benjamin Ricketts Main by Able Seaman Jarrod Mulvihill

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

61

SHEEAN VC Her Majesty The Queen approved the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross for Australia to Ordinary Seaman Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean on 12 August 2020 – just two days after the Governor General asked her – and 78 years after he earned it...

62

BEYOND ANY DOUBT

As the enemy continued to fire upon the ship and his shipmates already in the water, 18-year-old Ordinary Seaman Sheean chose not to abandon ship as ordered and returned to the aft anti-aircraft gun.

Despite being wounded twice, he strapped himself into the gun’s shoulder mounts and harness and commenced firing at the enemy, shooting down one aircraft and possibly damaging others while attempting to disrupt and distract the enemy from strafing and killing his defenceless shipmates in the water.

Despite severe and possibly fatal wounds, Sheean continued firing the gun even as the ship slipped beneath the waves, dragging him with it to his grave.

Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean deliberately sacrificed his own life trying to save his shipmates.

Of the 149 people on board the ship that day, 100 were lost, with many of the survivors attributing their survival to Sheean.

On 1 December 1942, HMAS Armidale came under aerial bombardment and torpedo attack from Japanese aircraft. The ship was badly damaged and the crew was ordered to into the water.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Aft gun

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

I wholeheartedly congratulate all those who campaigned for this award over many years.

However, I can’t help but read a certain hypocrisy into Defence’s headline statement after the award was approved that “Teddy Sheean’s bravery and sacrifice has long been recognised and honoured by Defence and the Royal Australian Navy“.

While I know they recognised and honoured him by naming a submarine after him etc – they also vigourously campaigned against awarding him the VC for 50 years or more.

Not three months before the award was eventually endorsed by the Queen, the same Royal Australian Navy issued a public statement rejecting the unanimous recommendation of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal.

Furthermore, the current Chief of Navy was the number one objector during the most recent review’s hearings – as were many of his predecessors in earlier reviews.

I fail to see how there could ever have been any doubt that 18-year-old Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean’s actions on 1 December 1942 were worthy of a VC – or that any objection to its awarding was anything other than ‘political’ or beureaucratic.

63

to s are loaded on Mobility Vehicle Camp Baird, d te ec ot Pr r Bushmaste stralia from e East. r return to Au pallets for thei operating base in the Middl n ai m ’s lia ra Aust nnedy oral Tristan Ke Photo by Corp

64

Australia is winding down its military commitments across the Middle East region, pulling back many of its Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force assets and personnel.

Our contribution to the Afghan National Army Officer Academy in Qargha near Kabul has ended – so too soldier training at Taji in Iraq – our major air-operations base has been cleaned out and handed over – and no more Navy ships will be sent to patrol the gulf.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said Australian advisors at Afghan training establishments had made a valuable contribution to the future security of Afghanistan.

“Our personnel have been vital to the establishment of national institutions such as the Afghan National Army Officer Academy in October 2013,” Minister Reynolds said.

“The work that the Australian Defence Force has done in training thousands of officers for the Afghan National Army will have a lasting impact on the security of Afghanistan.”

She said the decision to conclude the ADF’s work at Qargha was made in consultation with the NATO Resolute Support mission and was in accordance with wider adjustments across the Coalition and across the Middle East.

On the ground, Australian soldiers held their final parade at Camp Qargha, Afghanistan, in September.

An Australian flag was presented to the British commanding officer as the Australian soldiers’ part in Force Protection Element-13 ended.

Private Arlen Treston, FPE-13, said that was their way of signing off.

“It was a strange feeling knowing we were the last Australians at the camp after 13 rotations,” Private Treston said.

Over the years, Australian soldiers’ mission changed from mostly combat operations, as experienced by earlier rotations, to force protection, with soldiers in a more passive role.

Some weeks, Private Treston and his mates would watch Kabul from guard towers, or man the camp’s gate, searching vehicles and people.

But Private Treston most enjoyed being a ‘guardian angel’ watching over coalition personnel mentoring Afghans at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy.

“They mentored the Afghans to a good standard,” Private Treston said.

“We would walk everywhere with them. If it was an outside task we’d form a perimeter and let them get on with their training.”

FPE-14 is now deployed to Kabul, headquartered at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

But, the Australian flag will not fly again at Qargha.

The arrival of Force Protection Element 14 in Kabul in September coincided with an interesting juncture in Afghanistan’s more recent war-torn history. After delays because of COVID-19 restrictions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opened Intra-Afghan Peace Negotiations in Doha, Qatar, on 12 September.

Officer Commanding FPE-14 Major Christopher Hall said the negotiations brought Afghans together in an effort to chart a new course of enduring peace for their country.

“The negotiations will hopefully change the environment we work in and the soldiers of 1RAR are adaptable and ready for that,” Major Hall said.

Of course, a notorious precondition of those negotiations was the release of Hekmatullah – the man responsible for the killing of Australian Sapper James Martin, Lance Corporal Stjepan ‘Rick’ Milosevic and Private Robert Poate in an insider attack at Patrol Base Wahab on 29 August 2012.

Hekmatullah was captured in Pakistan and deported back to Afghanistan in October 2013, where Australians believed he would be held for the rest of his natural days.

His release upset more than a few people.

FPE-14 is made up of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), which took over from the 5RAR-based FPE-13.

Their mission is to protect Australian and Coalition forces as they train, advise and assist Afghan security forces and travel about the Afghan capital.

“Major James Byers and his FPE-13 team gave us an excellent handover,” Major Hall said.

65

Members of FPE-14 were eager to start their deployment after their mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine period – which they will likely have to repeat on the homeward journey early next year.

More than 2000km away, Task Group Taji finished a similar training mission of Iraqi security forces in June, after more than five years and 10 Australian and New Zealand troop rotations.

Since 2015, Australia and New Zealand trained more than 47,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces through the joint Australia-New Zealand Building Partner Capacity Program.

Australia’s support at Taji enabled the Iraqi Security Forces to increase its capacity to deliver its own training and conduct independent operations.

New Zealand withdrew its troops from Taji in March this year, followed by the Aussies in June – all of whom had to quarantine for 14 days on home soil before being reunited with family and friends.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds commended the Australian Defence Force for its contribution to Task Group Taji.

“The ADF has been at the very forefront of the work at Taji,” Minister Reynold’s said.

“Last year, I saw first hand the incredible contribution our personnel made at Taji, and had the opportunity to thank them for their significant efforts.

“The substantial progress made against Daesh and the increased capacity of the Iraqi Security Forces means that our training mission at Taji has reached its logical and natural conclusion.”

Commander Joint Forces New Zealand Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour said New Zealand’s forces had also done an extremely good job since 2015 helping build the capacity of the Iraqi Security Forces to confront and defeat the threat posed by ISIS. “New Zealand can be proud of all that our forces have accomplished.”

The Royal Australian Navy is also winding down its presence in the Middle East.

After almost 30 years of near-continuous naval patrols, the Australian government said it would not deploy another ship to the Middle East, and was not extending 66

Australia’s commitment to the International Maritime Security Construct beyond December 2020.

Minister Reynolds said the Royal Australian Navy was currently more active in the Indo-Pacific Region than it has been in decades and would now focus its assets in our own neighbourhood.

“This year alone has seen Navy respond to the bushfire and COVID-19 crises, a five-ship deployment throughout South East Asia and the Pacific, a continued commitment to initiatives under the Pacific Step Up, and several highly successful activities with our regional partners,” she said.

“We remain committed to implementing sanctions against North Korea until it takes clear steps towards complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation.

“Ongoing sanctions-enforcement operations, in close cooperation with our partners, are a significant contribution to international efforts to achieve permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

She said we now faced an increasingly challenging strategic environment which was placing greater demand on ADF resources closer to home.

“As a result, the Australian Defence Force will reduce its naval presence in the Middle East to enable more resources to be deployed in our own region.”

Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Greg Bilton said these were historic changes for the Australian Defence Force.

“The outstanding contribution of Royal Australian Navy ships has been highly valued by our partners in the Middle East,” Lieutenant General Bilton said.

“We should all be proud of what the Royal Australian Navy has achieved over such a long period of sustained operations.”

Minister Reynolds said Australia was proud of its longstanding commitment to maritime security in the Middle East.

“For more than 30 years we have supported freedom of navigation, maritime security and the free flow of commerce in the Middle East,” she said.

“In cooperation with our partners, our commitments have been invaluable in disrupting the global drugs trade, supporting the reduction of funding lines to terrorism activity and building the capacity of regional forces.”

ABOVE: Force Protection Element 14 soldiers transit through Kabul, Afghanistan, in a Bushmaster PMV. Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy TOP RIGHT: A Unimog and Bushmaster await loading onto a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster in Kabul.

Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy RIGHT: Private Sean Clinton-Morgan from the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is currently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, on Operation Highroad with Force Protection Element 14.

Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy FAR RIGHT: Private Mason Allam from the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, also with Force Protection Element 14.

Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

67

RIGHT: HMAS Toowoomba ends a 30 year stretch of Australian naval patrols in the Middle East. Photo by Leading Seaman Richard Cordell MAIN: Corporal Nicholas Russo, an RAAF airfield defence guard, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul. Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy

HMAS Toowoomba was the last Australian ship to deploy to the Middle East under Operation Manitou, but returned to Australia in June this year.

Toowoomba’s was the Royal Australian Navy’s 68th deployment to the Middle East Region since 1990 and the sixth mission for that ship.

The Royal Australian Air Force was also making significant moves out of the Middle East with the former home of its air operations in the region handed over to the United States Air Force in October.

The transfer of Camp McNamara VC, which was established six years ago as a critical launch point in the fight against Da’esh, scratched a significant line in the sand for the RAAF, following what it said was the final rotation of E-7A Wedgetail and KC-30A multi-role tanker transport aircraft out of theatre a month earlier.

The aircraft had been operating in the Middle East Region as part of Australia’s Air Task Group 630, performing airborne command and control and air-to-air refuelling support tasks for the international coalition in combat operations.

Minister Reynolds said Australia was a strong and consistent contributor to the Coalition, and had been engaged since 2014 as part of our global responsibility to support peace and security operations.

“I am extremely proud of the contribution made by the Australian Defence Force as part of the Coalition to defeat Da’esh in Iraq,” she said.

“Since the start of the threat posed by Da’esh to peace and stability in Iraq, the Coalition has liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometres and around 7.7 million Iraqis are free from Da’esh oppression.

“As this recent year-long deployment of RAAF aircraft comes to an end, I commend the crews, personnel and supporting Defence staff for their dedication, resilience and ongoing professionalism.”

Squadron Leader Kevin Lee was the last commander of Camp McNamara VC and the detachment commander in charge of the operation to return the base to its original condition.

He said dismantling the well-established facility required detailed planning.

A 29-person team prepared about 73 tonnes of stores and 68

equipment − from tow-motors and water trucks, to ground power units and generators − and about 20 tonnes of aircraft spare parts for return to Australia.

Squadron Leader Lee said the task was not simple.

“The dynamic nature of supporting concurrent operations while setting the condition for a retrograde operation was challenging in the initial phases,” he said.

“Added to this were the intricacies of coordinating elements from across different forces coupled with limited capabilities in Camp McNamara.

“It was challenging, but my team – affectionately known as ‘The A Team’ – was highly motivated and took it all in their stride.”

Squadron Leader Lee said the Camp McNamara site would always be a small part of Australia.

“We have built an awesome reputation as professional air power, not only with our coalition partners, but across the Middle East,” he said.

“The close working relationships we fostered with our coalition allies, in particular with the United States Air Force, reinforced our reputation as a professional and trusted partner.

“As the last commander of Camp McNamara VC, I am immensely proud of what we have achieved here.”

Commander of all Australian forces in the Middle East Major General Susan Coyle said the deployment of the aircraft had provided key capabilities to Coalition forces in the region.

“Through the deployment of F/A-18 Hornets and F/A-18F Super Hornets to the final rotation of the E-7A Wedgetail and KC-30A tanker, Camp McNamara provided a critical hub for airborne operations,” Major General Coyle said.

“We have been able to provide increased situational awareness across the battlespace and provide air-to-air refuelling to enable Coalition aircraft to continue the fight against Daesh.”

But, of course, all that has ended now, with Australia’s new focus on our own back yard.

The number of Australian military personnel currently stationed in the Middle East has been reduced to around 1000, with around 110 in Iraq, 80 in Afghanistan, 20 supporting the maritime mission ashore and around 600 providing support to Australian operations in the region.

Armed with a wood-covered bible that has brought comfort to others in conflict since WWII, Chaplain Peter Price served on Operation Highroad in Kabul in 2019/20, his first operational deployment.

Chaplain Price said he was privileged to carry the bible, a gift from a fellow Padre.

“When I was back at 3 Brigade’s 4 Regiment in Queensland in 201416, I developed a good friendship with Major Iain McLeod Carnegie, a Scotsman who had transferred from the British Army to the Australian after 28 years’ service with them,” Chaplain Price said.

“While in the British Army, Major Carnegie carried this bible with him on operations across the world.

“On each deployment he inscribed the location of his service, from Northern Ireland in the early ‘90s to Afghanistan in 2006 and Iraq 2007/08.”

Major Carnegie said the the pair met in 2015 when he posted to 4 Regiment, where he worked alongside a superb Padre who was to become a good friend, Chaplain Pete Price.

“Having been hugely impressed with Pete’s empathy and dedication to the regiment, I decided that my time as custodian of the bible had come to an end and that I would present it to him, so it could continue its journey around the globe.”

Chaplain Price said he was blessed to be on deployment in

Afghanistan so he could help those who were serving their country overseas.

“Chaplaincy is more than drinking coffee with people.

Matters of the soul ‘matter’ and play an integral part when people are pressed with thoughts of mortality, hopelessness and despair,” Chaplain Price said.

“Those who choose to serve sacrifice a lot.

“To be even a small part of that – to be able to assist them – is something I will always be grateful for.”

Australian Army Chaplain Peter Price and the wood-covered bible that’s served soldiers since WWII.

69

BOXER BUSH BASH First

With about six new Boxer 8x8 combat reconnaissance vehicles (CRV) now delivered to the Army – from a fleet of 211 rolling out over the next six years – driver and crew training has begun.

The first Boxer conversion course was run in conjunction with the vehicle manufacturer Rheinmetall Defence Australia and the Army, modified to meet COVID-19 restrictions.

Soldiers from the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry) conducted a twoweek driver conversion course and live-fire weapons shoots with the Boxer at Wide Bay and Greenbank training areas near Brisbane.

Course participant Lance Corporal Thomas Ovey said the Boxer’s maneuverability had surprised him.

“We thought we’d have some trouble with the trees on bush tracks but it was just a matter of adjusting and getting used to the size,”Lance Corporal Ovey said.

“Once you get a feel for the car and it all starts rolling, it’s really good.”

70

“But the best part of the training, for me, was definitely the live fire.

“The remote weapon station on top of theses Boxers is very accurate.”

Boxer 8x8 CRV – under Project LAND 400 Phase 2, Mounted Combat Reconnaissance Capability – will see 211 CRVs replace the current fleet of Australian Light Armoured Vehicles.

The first 25 vehicles will be assembled in Germany and delivered to Australia as part of the technology transfer required to familiarise Australian workers and suppliers on the specific manufacturing techniques of these vehicles – and so that crew training can commence.

The remaining vehicles will be assembled at the newly opened Rheinmetall Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence campus in Redbank, south-east Queensland.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison inspected and officially opened the new Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence on 11 October.

Photo by Trooper Jonathan Goedhart

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

71

Up hill, down hill and even on a banked track, Boxer looks impressive.

Obstacle-course photos by Corporal Nicole Dorrett PM photo by Corporal Nicci Freeman RIGHT: Two photos that demonstrate Boxer’s impressive size – top, at a firepower demo in Puckapunyal and, bottom, compared to the ASLAV it replaces. Top photo by Corporal Nunu Campos – bottom unknown.

The 11 hectare site is both Rheinmetall’s regional headquarters and manufacturing and support site for the Land 400’s Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle and Land 121’s truck fleet.

Prime Minister Morrison said the Rheinmetall facility was the “best of its class anywhere in the world”.

Some of the facilities in the precinct include a vehicle test track, indoor range and a systems-integration laboratory, used to optimise the performance of inservice systems in Rheinmetall vehicles.

With six vehicles already in service, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr said the platform, and the Australian soldiers who employ them, were the building blocks of the Army’s future potent and credible land power.

“This centre will increase Defence’s ability to change the size, scale and type of land forces over time, allowing us to anticipate and respond to a dynamic strategic environment,” he said.

Head Armoured Vehicle Division Major General David Coghlan said Army personnel worked in the 72

Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence during the acceptance process for the first Boxers.

“Working closely improved understanding by Rheinmetall and Army and contributed to the timely and effective acceptance of the first vehicles,” Major General Coghlan said.

“Army wasn’t directly involved in its setup, however, it includes allocated space for us to facilitate collaboration on the vehicles produced and supported here.”

The first Boxer 8x8 CRV was formally delivered to the Commonwealth at a ceremony at Enoggera Barracks, Brisbane, on 24 September 2019, with final vehicle deliveries expected in 2026.

Rheinmetall Defence Australia will support the fleet for at least the next 30 years after that at its Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence.

The LAND 400 Phase 2 Mounted Combat Reconnaissance Capability delivery program is valued at about $5 billion, with through-life support over the next 30 years costing even more.

Early troop-transport versions of Boxer CRV will be equipped with a Kongsberg remote weapon system (RWS), while later vehicles will sport Australian-made EOS RWS systems.

Turreted versions will pack a 30mm cannon as well as an anti-tank guided missile system – the Rafael Spike LR. They will also be equipped with an active protection system, but the specific system has yet to be chosen, with a feasibility study currently underway.

The vehicles will also be equipped with highly capable sensors and communications suites for the connected battlefield.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said Boxer would be able to undertake a range of missions from regional stability and peacekeeping through to high-threat operations, and would provide improved safety to Australian soldiers on deployment around the world.

Testing its deployability in November, a Boxer CRV was loaded aboard HMAS Adelaide and transported ashore by light landing craft to test its manoeuverability on beach sand.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

73

Embarking a light landing craft at Cowley Beach, Queensland.

RIGHT: Photo by Lieutenant Commander Ian Stubbs MAIN: Photo by Trooper Jonathan Goedhart

74

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

The vehicle passed the beach trials with flying colours, during Exercise Sea Wader.

A newly-trained vehicle crew from 2/14LHR(QMI) deployed to Cowley Beach Training Area, joining the Amphibious Task Group to put the vehicles to the test, with the Boxer said to have out-performed expectations.

Officer Commanding 2/14LHR(QMI)’s A Squadron Major Ed Keating said he was excited to see the Boxer perform so well on the coastline.

“The vehicle provides a real fighting capability that’s not only going to be the most capable cavalry vehicle in the world, but set the conditions for further modernisation projects,” Major Keating said.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

“From what we’ve seen, I’m confident the Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicle can be deployed just about anywhere in the world.

“The way it was able to manoeuvre on the beach was impressive.”

In the trials, the crew actually tried their hardest to get the vehicle bogged in loose sand, but the Boxer was able to be driven out of trouble every time without needing aids.

“It’s got a lot of power and made short work of the beach, and it wasn’t even being used to its maximum capability,” Major Keating said.

“It’s an extremely impressive and capable vehicle.”

He said his unit was training enthusiastically and really liked the vehicle.

“Boxer is far more advanced and a totally different beast to its ASLAV predecessor, and our vehicle crews are learning how to adapt their existing knowledge to it.

“It’s certainly not an ASLAV. It’s a completely different vehicle with different capabilities, and the crews need to learn how to use the Boxer CRV to firstly achieve what they could with the ASLAV, but then go beyond that.

“So far, the crews are extremely impressed with the Boxer multi-purpose variant, and they’re quickly learning how to use it as a deployable capability.”

75

ABOVE LEFT AND RIGHT: Trying but failing to bog the Boxer on loose sand. Photos by Trooper Jonathan Goedhart RIGHT: First driver’s course. Photo by Corporal Nicole Dorrett

Major Keating said he was confident in the Boxer’s ability to deploy anywhere and for any reason, be it humanitarian and disaster relief as the high-risk weather season approaches, or combat operations as required by the government.

“It can lend assistance in most conditions, and it will be able to fight anywhere we are required to fight,” he said.

Boxer was joined by two Hawkei protected mobility vehicle-light and two high-mobility tactical Extenda vehicles, as well as combat support and logistic elements from across the 1st Division and Forces Command at Cowley Beach for Exercise Sea Wader.

The joint Army/Navy training during Sea Wader was designed to ensure the vehicles could get ashore by day and night and in adverse weather conditions.

Operational test director for the vehicle embarkation trials Commander Tim Watson said the aim of the exercise was to test and evaluate the vehicles in a real-world environment.

“We are aiming to validate that the vehicles can operate in their intended conditions,” Commander Watson said.

76

“This also provides an opportunity for Navy and Army personnel to work together and test our interoperability in a variety of conditions.”

Exercise Director and Commander Landing Forces Colonel Kim Gilfillan said the land and sea trials provided the Australian Amphibious Force (AAF) with world-class projection capabilities.

“The integration of new ADF land vehicles with the Landing Helicopter Dock Adelaide provides a step-up in our amphibious force projection capabilities and our capacity to meet the challenges of increased strategic competition,” Colonel Gilfillan said.

“In addition to the integration of new capabilities, this joint training will ensure the AAF is well positioned to respond to a range of contingencies, and in particular to provide support to Australia and our regional partners ahead of the 2020-21 high-risk weather season.”

He said the relationship Army had with Navy was excellent and working with HMAS Adelaide was essential to the ADF’s ability to provide safe and effective joint capabilities to the government.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

77

Disruptive innovation

By Lieutenant Colonel Scott Holmes

A Ghost Robotics legged robot stands ready with Australian Army soldiers during an autonomous systems showcase at the Majura Training Area, Canberra.

A Ghost Robotics legged robot stands ready with Australian Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy Army soldiers during an autonomous systems showcase at the Majura Training Area, Canberra.

Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy

78

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

proximity and partnership

T

he Australian Army is in an exciting period of change and development. New strategic guidance and a generously funded force structure plan, coupled with the demand of senior leaders for change, presents opportunities for substantial enhancements to Army’s structure and capabilities. Seizing the opportunity requires innovative employment of emerging technologies grounded in real-world experience.

This article will use the example of a Semi-Autonomous Combat Team concept to illustrate how disruptive innovation is being explored and explain the important role of proximity and partnerships. These notions describe organisational and human relationships between the Army’s modernisation enterprise, industry and the end users – our soldiers. They are important ideas that have a vital role in moving from discerning possible threats and opportunities to identifying, selecting and delivering novel capabilities.

Changes in military effectiveness are described in many ways. Slow changes are considered evolutionary and in general, are a normal function of efficient business practices. The ADF describes incremental improvement more generally as modernisation.

Rapid changes can be more disruptive, often prompted by the immediacy of an unforeseen crisis. Some crises will have modest long-term influences on the organisation, such as recent experiences with COVID-19 and national bushfires. Some crises will be more organisationally profound, as was the case of the East Timor intervention in 1999 or the fall of Singapore in 1942, leading to changes in the outlook, structure, equipment and tactics of the Army.

Additionally, militaries can seize opportunities to engineer discontinuous changes in military effectiveness as a deliberate process.

The most common description of such change is the Revolution in Military Affairs or ‘RMA’, in which new technologies are often the catalyst for subsequent developments in tactics, organisational structures and operating concepts which boost military capacity.

The Australian government’s present investment in military capabilities, coupled with the willingness of senior leaders to drive change, presents a golden opportunity for the Army to increase its long-term operational effectiveness. The real challenge is converting the potential into effective military capabilities. In this sense, capability is the sum of people, organisational processes, tactics, training and leadership – never simply the underlying technology.

Currently, there is a structural disconnect between the desire to seize opportunities offered by new technology and the processes of capability development. This is largely because management practices reflect

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

and reinforce a mindset of modernisation through incremental (but often minor) increases in performance – rather than the pursuit of more revolutionary increases in military effectiveness.

This conservative approach has, in part, been shaped by government’s reform of the Defence Materiel Organisation after a series of mismanaged high-profile procurements. While the updates to the capability lifecycle (CLC), embedded through the 2016 First Principles Review, improved oversight and management of defence materiel, it has not enabled fast and disruptive change opportunities to enter military practice.

Present capability management practices are more closely aligned to modernisation than RMA forms of change, reinforcing a mindset of change through incremental increases in performance – rather than the pursuit of more revolutionary increases in military effectiveness.

This critique does not imply any unwillingness to change or a lack of leadership to do so. Quite the opposite. What is largely missing are processes and structures to empower change. While the Army’s robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) strategy highlights a more radical change in direction, it does not have the organisational processes to enable change beyond incremental updates to current capability pathways.

There are however, two practical steps, or principles, we can adopt to improve the speed and scope of exploratory development and accelerate new capabilities: • Create proximity between problem owners and potential problem solvers.

• Develop partnerships that enable multi-functional teams with diverse skills to tackle problems together.

These steps are useful because there is a gap between soldiers – the problem owners – and the potential of industry, academia and technologists to be problem solvers.

The technologies driving societal change now, and certainly into the future, include computational technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, nanotechnologies and biotechnologies. Few military practitioners have any experience or expertise in these.

In reverse, experts in these technology fields are generally not military practitioners, creating a gap between the needs of military users, and the potential of new technologies.

Proximity between the two groups is a first step towards exposing both parties to the needs of the other and enabling better understanding of opportunities to act upon. Currently, the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) provides Army’s awareness of leading-edge technologies, while the defence Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) 79

80

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

RIGHT: Trooper Chris Jack from B Squadron 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment, School of Armour, remotely controls an autonomous M113 AS4 optionally crewed combat vehicle (OCCV) at the Majura Training Area, Canberra.

Photo by Corporal Tristan Kennedy LEFT: Trooper Sam Menzies deploys a PD-100 Black Hornet nano unmanned aerial vehicle at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland.

Photo by Corporal Nunu Campos

engages with industry to acquire such technology. Capability managers have the responsibility of sitting astride both these functions across the four phases of the CLC, however, this oversight is largely theoretical because much of the development work remains divided into specialised organisations.

The staff officers who represent the practitioner perspective necessarily struggle to maintain both a wide and deep perspective, especially when proposed technologies are new and different. Consequently, their capacity to recognise, comprehend and assess novel technologies, or novel use of technologies, is constrained. This leads to user requirements that reinforce continuity over change.

Proximity between the problem owners and the potential problem solvers can assist the development and realisation of more innovative military capabilities.

An important change that could improve capability exploration and innovation is to better connect and involve academia, industry and military practitioners in the concept- and requirements-setting phases of the CLC. Involving a more diverse group of experts allows new eyes to observe the challenges and opportunities for disruptive capability development.

Exploring military problems needs habitual not ad hoc relationships – requiring partnerships over the more common interaction of transactional exchange.

Partnerships require practitioners to be physically brought together to

understand problems and identify opportunities. This is achieved through proximity. Identifying the challenges to be solved provides the structuring logic for partnerships to solve tough challenges.

As technological change accelerates, options and opportunities to apply new technologies in novel ways will similarly expand.

Yet recognising and choosing between these myriad possibilities in the context of changing defence tasks and changing geopolitical circumstances will be challenging.

Enabling proximity and developing habitual partnerships is one means for supporting the rate of capability innovation demanded of the Army in Motion.

Work is presently underway to harness the potential of proximity and partnerships. The Trusted Autonomous System Defence Cooperative Research Centre (TASDCRC), the Defence Innovation Hub (DIH), DSTG and the Dismounted Combat Program (DCP) at AHQ have teamed up with the Combat Training Centre (CTC) Townsville, to create the Combat Applications Lab (CAL). CAL is a physical space where practitioners, industry, academia, DSTG and CASG engineers can collaborate. This partnership is enabled by the DCP team who manage the funding and provide broad direction for development efforts.

An example of how proximity and partnerships contribute to new capabilities in demonstrated through the case of Human-Machine Teaming exploration – a construct that employs RAS to improve the closecombat effectiveness of a dismounted infantry platoon.

81

ABOVE: Combat Training Centre soldiers with a Mule unmanned ground vehicle, Ghost Robotics robot and a Black Hornet nano unmanned aerial vehicle in a display of human-machine teaming in Canberra.

Photo by Corporal Sebastian Beurich TOP RIGHT: Corporal Aaron Le Jeune, 9th Force Support Battalion, trials a Mule unmanned ground vehicle at Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

Photo by Sergeant Jake Sims 82

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Several novel capabilities, including remotely piloted and autonomous ground and air robotic platforms, are being linked into high-capacity data networks with data analytic capabilities. This will deliver better understanding, first of the utility of these systems in close combat, and then of the opportunities that may exist to develop the concept further.

The current exploration is being driven by a tactical concept titled SemiAutonomous Combat Team (SACT). SACT has been developed by DSTG’s Joint Operational Analysis Division (JOAD) in conjunction with DCP and CTC. SACT applies machines and data as forms of mass to improve the lethality, situational awareness and tempo of close-combat land forces.

In doing so, the concept requires human-machine teams to cooperate in combat.

A key change articulated in the SACT is a move away from a mindset of resource scarcity, towards a mindset of machine and data abundance.

The process of exploration is occurring in four parts; • The conceptual framework of SACT was developed to provide sufficient guidance and analytical rigour for field and desktop simulations and experiments. The concept development phase is iterative and not static, providing an ‘actionable concept’ for Army to design against throughout the exploration.

• A consortium of industry partners was engaged through the DIH and TASDCRC to build prototype materiel for CAL to employ. The materiel

closely matches the SACT concepts materiel requirements to validate assumptions and introduce industry to defence practitioners and the environments under which mature technologies would be employed.

• Regular engagements (5 days per month) between industry, academic researchers and the end-users creates an iterative cycle of development and feedback to improve the effectiveness of new technologies and generate new military capabilities.

• CTC employs the SACT concept with the new equipment in live forceon-force exercises to validate findings, amend the concept and provide guidance on the utility and potential of new technologies to DCP and CASG. The findings form the basis of more disruptive military practices and the requirements for such capabilities to enter the capabilityacquisition cycle.

The exploration of SACT is embryonic and will continue through to the end of 2022. Important changes in capability direction have already been identified, including new digital networking needs, the desire to limit changes in robotic hardware through common platforms with interchangeable payloads, and the use of artificial-intelligence-enabled decision-support software for tactical combatants.

These findings are a step towards the integration of RAS for close combat, but more importantly, it shows an alternate pathway to disruptive capability development built around the principles of proximity and partnership.

83

OUT OF THE BLUE BOLT Photos by Sergeant Ray Vance Story by Major Carrie Robards Urban training is considered a challenging way to prepare for modern operations and the latest Regimental Officer Basic Course at the School of Infantry experienced this at the next level using cutting-edge Blue Bolt non-lethal ammunition.

Lieutenant Ethan Strunks said non-lethal training ammunition (NLTA) provided realistic training with many advantages.

“This gives us the opportunity to fight force-on-force, rather than just against targets,” Lieutenant Strunks said.

“What blanks can’t simulate, like taking a casualty in the battlefield, NLTA can.”

Commandant of the Combined Arms Training Centre Colonel David McCammon said the implementation of realistic and challenging training was the right way to prepare future leaders.

“CATC is focused on delivering training that strengthens a soldier’s combat mindset,” Colonel McCammon said.

“While the training is tough, it mirrors the demands of leading soldiers on a battlefield.

“Training such as this ensures that our soldiers are ready to fight and win the land battle, now and under the demands of future warfare.”

Working in partnership with Army Headquarters, School of Infantry has been able to qualify around 90 personnel who can now crosspollinate into battalions and build an instructor base.

Further test and evaluation trials are scheduled in September and, based on their success, will then be rolled out across Army.

Army officers during a Blue Bolt non-lethal training ammunition serial on the infantry Regimental Officer Basic Course at the Singleton Military Area.

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

85

G N LO H N A H K ith action awash w , artillery, re e w a y re er infantr raining A ille Field T k – brought togeth on the one sv n w o T f o ac s elements as the lling hills ve-fire att 20, the ro combined-arms li nd communication live-fire exercise w as at 0 2 st u g u rd Brigade w anh – a On 24 A ent, the edical a gistics, m an Regim nsure 3 e Long Kh y as as Exercis engineering, air, lo lion, Royal Australi ining activities to e recover capabilit s , rd Batta a to d tr d rm re x n u -a a le o d mp ine e3 cies arm Led by th of increasingly co nge of contingen restrictions. Comb p their skills . ld e fi le tt lo ba 19 ries a ra they deve e COVID spond to on of a se ghting to culminati l of readiness to re ring the peak of th ir commanders as m high-level warfi e e o du a high lev mited operations 3 Bde troops and th ssible scenarios, fr o li r p f o fo ll l lt a a r ti su a re ng fo essen ce. in prepari aining is live-fire tr y and collectively an or civil assistan utt. ri ll a l a it u man Danie Str individ g and hu kin and Corporal in p e e k e Rus peac WO2 Neil Photos by 86

Flight Lieutenant Ebrahim Tabandeh, an Air Control Liaison Officer with 3 Brigade, controls the airspace for the combined-arms attack during Exercise Long Khanh.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

87

Pilbara Patrol Photos supplied by Australian Border Force

Assets from the Australian Border Force, Army’s Pilbara Regiment and the RAAF, with support from the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Federal Police and WA Police, conducted a unique patrol activity in Western Australia’s north in July.

Under the umbrella of Operation Resolute, the activity ran for two weeks and focused on the Exmouth-Coral Bay area and adjacent western shipping routes, more than 1000km north of Perth.

Soldiers from The Pilbara Regiment deployed from regional towns to assist in the surveillance effort, with their local knowledge proving invaluable in the protection of country.

Overt operational activities included a beach landing of a Regional Force Surveillance Group patrol aboard an LCM-8 landing craft at Norwegian Bay, 60km north of Coral Bay. The landing also represented the first operational use of small commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aircraft systems by the RFSG, with imagery of areas of interest captured remotely by operators in a concealed location.

Variant 2 vessel Kimberley Coast from ABF Regional Command WA ensured ABF officers provided maritime law enforcement throughout the operation.

88

Air surveillance support was provided by a RAAF P-8A Poseidon.

Commander Maritime Border Command (MBC) Rear Admiral Lee Goddard said the deployment was a clear demonstration of the whole-ofgovernment commitment to detect and deter criminal activity along Australia’s vast coastline.

“These activities are part of our enduring surveillance and response programme,” Rear Admiral Goddard said.

“Criminals and other threat actors are adept at identifying and exploiting weaknesses in maritime borders for their own nefarious ends.

“But the combined efforts of Maritime Border Command and partner agencies are equal to the task through our surveillance, patrol and response capabilities, combating illegal activity and threats to Australia’s border.

“Whether it be the movement of illicit drugs, illegal maritime arrivals or illegal foreign fishing, MBC is committed to protecting Australia’s maritime environment and defending our borders.”

Australia has a comprehensive maritime surveillance and response capability delivered through Maritime Border Command, a multi-agency taskforce within the Australian Border Force.

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

89

INDI A’S NAVAL EXERCI SE

90

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

Naval ships, aircraft and personnel from Australia, India, Japan, and the United States began exercise Malabar 2020 in the Bay of Bengal on 3 November.

Hosted by the Indian Navy, this year marks the 24th iteration of Exercise Malabar, which began in 1992.

HMAS Ballarat represented the Royal Australian Navy, participating for the first time in 13 years.

The annual exercise advances the planning, integration and employment of advanced warfare tactics between participating nations.

Commanding Officer of HMAS Ballarat Commander Antony Pisani said the multinational maritime exercise was an opportunity for Ballarat to participate in a high-end maritime exercise that increased mutual understanding and enhanced combined air- and maritime-domain awareness.

“HMAS Ballarat is the first Royal Australian Navy ship to participate in Exercise Malabar since 2007,” Commander Pisani said.

“It’s an excellent opportunity to exercise with our partners and contribute to the security, stability and prosperity of the region.

“Going to sea and exercising together allows each navy to become accustomed with each other’s procedures and capabilities, leading to greater trust and interoperability.”

Commander Pisani said it had been a busy few months for the 192 men and women of HMAS Ballarat.

“We have spent the past couple of months training and preparing the ship materially so that it is ready, prepared and postured to respond to any contingency and undertake this deployment.

“Our ship has many of the best young officers and sailors in the Royal Australian Navy.

“They proved during our unit readiness work-up and evaluation that they are a highly dedicated and capable team.

“I have the utmost confidence in them.”

On her way to Exercise Malabar, HMAS Ballarat and USS John S. McCain united on the high seas and remained in company through the Malacca Strait.

Commander Pisani welcomed the opportunity to work closely with the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

“This cooperative deployment allows HMAS Ballarat to hone our warfare and mariner skills and develop our ability to operate and communicate,” Commander Pisani said.

“The shared trust both navies have for each other ensures such activities are mutually beneficial, enhancing the readiness and preparedness of the ships that undertake them.”

HMAS Ballarat. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda

HMAS Ballarat, Indian Navy Ship Shakti and Japanese Ship Onami conduct a Replenishment at Sea. Photos by Leading Seaman Shane Cameron

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

91

BIG BAD JOHN

Commander Ryan T. Easterday, commanding officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain waves to the Royal Australian Navy Anzac-class frigate HMAS Ballarat. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda

92

HMAS Ballarat’s ship’s company watch USS Sterett, USS Princeton and USS Nimitz as the ships sail in formation on the final day of Exercise Malabar 2020.

Photo by Leading Seaman Shane Cameron

Commanding Officer USS John S. McCain Commander Ryan T. Easterday said the activity reinforced the strong bond with Australia.

“We find tremendous value in sailing with our close ally Australia, as well as our other allies and partners in support of a free, open, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” Commander Easterday said.

“The training we are conducting while we operate together helps both ships’ crews improve their mariner skills and warfighting proficiency, in addition to the interoperability benefits we accrue by working together as a team.”

Ballarat’s Officer of the Watch, Lieutenant Matthew Newman, was on duty during the exercise between the two warships.

“The opportunity to exercise close manoeuvring at high speeds was a unique experience that solidified a number of core mariner skills in a real-time context,” Lieutenant Newman said.

“Ballarat and John S. McCain conducted a number of turns, wheels and formations that demonstrated the capability of both vessels.”

Ballarat is the sixth of eight Anzac-class frigates capable of air defence, surface and undersea warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction.

Exercise Malabar was conducted in two phases, the second phase in the north of the Arabian Sea stepped things up several notches with the arrival of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group.

Phase two included a photo exercise, night operations, air-defence exercises, helicopter cross-deck evolutions, underway replenishment approaches, gunnery exercises, antisubmarine exercises – and, of course, plenty of aircraft-carrier flight operations.

Commander Pisani said phase two of the exercise provided an opportunity for Ballarat to operate with modern, leading-edge maritime capabilities.

Commodore of the US Navy’s Destroyer Squadron Fifteen Captain Steven DeMoss said India, Japan, and Australia formed the core of America’s strategic partners across the Indo-Pacific.

“It is fitting to see our navies operate in a high-end, tactically relevant exercise such as Malabar,” he said.

“It is another opportunity to further strengthen our combined capabilities and enhance our partnerships.”

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said the imperative to cooperate closely with regional partners on shared challenges was stronger than ever.

“Participation in sophisticated exercises such as Malabar not only highlights the strategic trust between the members, but also strengthens our collective ability to contribute to regional security,” Minister Reynolds said.

“Exercise Malabar is an important opportunity to work in concert with like-minded nations to support a secure, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.

“India and Australia are natural partners in the IndoPacific, and Malabar is a clear demonstration of the depth of trust and cooperation between our defence organisations.”

93

A Day to Remember ANZAC Day in Kiama, NSW, with CONTACT editor Brian Hartigan, wife Rosie, daughter Ashling and our wonderful neighbours.

With traditional services and marches cancelled because of the pandemic, I had been thinking what to do on ANZAC Day for weeks.

My first thought went to defiance – rounding up olds-and-bolds for a self-led vigil. Then, as the virus lockdown became more serious, I thought quiet and lonely contemplation by the sea might be best.

But then, someone hit on a real contender – stand at dawn on your own driveway. If Aussies cottoned on to this, it could be special indeed.

Then some other bright spark proposed an additional element, which I also liked – Exercise Stone Pillow, where the old army swag was rolled out on the lawn and yours truly – after paying $20 to the cause – prepared for a nostalgic night under the stars. A neighbour secretly left fresh, homemade ANZAC buscuits on my swag, to add even more poignance.

Having been prepared to do my own thing solo, I hadn’t prepared much else other than the suit, tie and medals in advance – but was delighted to see ‘the war 94

office’ organising candles and accoutrements in the wee hours.

I was also thrilled (nay, emotional) to hear that neighbours’ kids had distributed fliers and sprigs of rosemary on the 24th.

All seemed set for a great day. Even the weather was expected to play nice.

On the 25th, I woke early, rolled out of the swag onto dewy grass and rolled indoors for a gunfire heart-starter.

About then, things started to slip slightly. A sturdy belt was required for the trousers, not to keep them up, but to help the buttons hold on. Then, as the senior rank in my street, wearing medals conspicuously, it occurred to me that maybe it would be appropriate to rehearse the ode at a minimum. Panic!

As it tuned out, however, a neighbour thought to relay the service broadcast from the Australian War Memorial, and I was spared.

Few of our neighbours normally get up for a traditional Dawn Service, but they were out in force

this year – young and old – and recently recruited (welcome to the fraternity Seaman Jack Nelson).

The sound system in our part of the neighbourhood proved to be a tad dodgy, cutting in and out as the service from Canberra was broadcast across the nation.

The technical glitch only added to the moment, though, because as ours dropped out, we could still hear the bugles reverberate through the suburb, competing with the kookaburras and crows.

The 5.50am start was much better too, I thought.

I’ve long said 5.30 is too early on the east coast, with services finished before the dawn actually breaks.

So special was this ANZAC Day in my neck of the woods, my neighbours deserved (and got) a round of applause.

So special was this ANZAC Day, I for one will campaign to do it this way next year too.

Borrowing from our Defence Minister, ‘may the nation’s ANZAC soul be honoured and nourished by this day. Lest we forget.’

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

O

n ANZAC Day we remember and honour the service and sacrifice of those who have served our nation.

We do this for a number of reasons – to acknowledge those who have died in service to our nation – to reflect on how that service and sacrifice has contributed to what and who we are as a nation today; that is, to understand its impact – and, to understand what our response should be to that legacy.

Today, on an ANZAC Day that is so different to what we are used to, this last point is particularly important.

We are proud of the ANZAC legacy. We celebrate it and we identify with it.

Now, as our generation faces its greatest test, is the time to demonstrate that that legacy is a true representation of who we are.

On 25 April 1915 the world changed. As young men and women of that generation joined the Services in increasingly large numbers, our nation experienced loss at a disproportionately larger rate than other countries. Australia suffered the highest death and wounding rate per capita.

This loss devastated our cities and towns. It disrupted the social fabric of Australia.

But from that devastation grew an Australian identity that has guided and, in many respects, defined our national character.

We are reminded today as we commemorate our losses in World War II – a war that ended 75 years ago – that that national character was evident again when Australia responded to the threat of totalitarianism and fascism.

And in more recent decades our service and sacrifice has continued in operations around the globe. Each has had its impact on our returned servicemen and servicewomen and reminds us that our duty to our veterans never ceases.

We now talk of the ANZAC legacy as having four characteristics that define Australia – mateship – endurance – courage, and – sacrifice In essence, these characteristics say that we are a people who, in adverse situations, are strong, look out for each other, and are prepared to put others before self.

A fine example of this was the action of the crew of HMAS Encounter during the Royal Australian Navy’s first overseas humanitarian mission to Tonga and Samoa in 1919.

The response to the captain’s request for volunteers to provide assistance ashore to treat those suffering with the Spanish flu was overwhelmingly positive. It would be difficult to find a more telling example of the Australian Navy’s tradition of ‘service before self ’.

Today, the ANZAC legacy should serve three purposes – to call on us to thank those earlier generations for their sacrifice – to energise us in looking after our more recent veterans, and – to inform us of what those earlier generations would expect of us today as we face our own generational test.

We remember on ANZAC Day for a reason. We are proud of our ANZAC forebears. Let us make them proud of us.

Lest We Forget.

Governor General of Australia General David Hurley Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

T

his year, Gallipoli will not be a place of pilgrimage. The Last Post will not echo across ANZAC Cove, nor at Lone Pine nor Chunuk Bair. There will be no visitors to the memorials and cemeteries on Gallipoli, no expeditions up the steep ravines and ridgelines where our forebears fought and died.

There will be no public gatherings in our towns and cities, and no opportunities for our citizens to stand side by side to honour our veterans and pay homage to those who lost their lives in times of war.

Along with our friends in Australia, we too will commemorate our day of remembrance in a unique way, knowing that on either side of the Tasman we can draw strength and resolve from the courage and comradeship of our forebears. We can be guided by their sense of common purpose, and the understanding that we all have a part to play in keeping each other safe and well in our current adversity. That includes reaching out to support the vulnerable, fearful and anxious among us.

We can choose to do good, to ensure that adversity brings out the best in us.

In this way we can best honour the memory of the many people who live on in our memories, and the sacrifices that they made for our nations.

Ka maumahara tonu tātou ki a rātou.

Governor General of New Zealand Dame Patsy Reddy

Brisbane suburban photo by Christabel Migliorini

Annzac Day 2020

95

96

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

On 29 October 2020 the Royal Australian Air Force’s No. 77 Squadron conducted a formation flying activity with F/A-18A Hornets off the coast of Newcastle, NSW. RAAF imagery specialists from No.28 Squadron took the opportunity to capture some final aerial imagery of the aircraft before their official retirement from service in 2021.

The F/A-18A (single seat) and F/A-18B (twin seat) Hornets are multi-role fighter aircraft that have been in RAAF service since 1984.

Australia ordered a total of 75 A and B model F/A-18s in 1981 to replace RAAF’s Mirage fighters (114 of which were built in Australia in the 1960s [another sovereign Australian industry sadly since lost]).

The Hornets started entering service from 1984 with the fleet complete by 1990.

Over the years, four Hornets were destroyed in flying accidents.

The fleet is currently in wind-down, with two airframes already flown to Canada and one more carried by a Royal Canadian Air Force C-17 on its return flight after delivering fire retardant to Australia during the most recent bushfire crisis.

Canada is buying ‘up to 25 aircraft’, 18 of which will be flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the rest used for spares and training.

Defence also said it had sold “up to 46” RAAF F/A-18 ‘classic’ Hornets to a commercial air combat training company in America.

However, since 25 and 46 equals the total remaining RAAF

fleet, one or both foreign customers will be disappointed to learn that at least two airframes were transferred to the Australian War Memorial in late October, with at least 10 others ‘promised’ [by politicians!] to other Australian heritage collections.

RAAF recently stopped ‘classic’ Hornet pilot conversion training, with the last course graduating from 2 Operational Conversion Unit in December last year.

Commanding officer 2OCU Wing Commander Scott Woodland said 2 Operational Conversion Unit’s final Classic Hornet mission was a fitting tribute to a significant milestone in RAAF history.

“2OCU’s role in preparing generations of ‘classic’ Hornet fighter aircrew with the skills and competency to engage in fighter combat has laid the very foundations of RAAF air power capability since the introduction of the platform,” Wing Commander Woodland said.

“Operational conversion has been at the cornerstone of the strength of the ‘classic’ Hornet platforms’ contribution – taking graduate Hawk 127 pilots, then testing and challenging them under the most gruelling conditions and toughest air-combat scenarios.

“The result has been the delivery of highly trained, focused pilots to frontline squadrons, performing with excellence at home and abroad on operations in defence of our national interests.”

The RAAF F/A-18A/B ‘Classic’ Hornet will be formally – and, we imagine, ceremonially – withdrawn from service in December 2021.

97

98

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

The ‘classic’ Hornets are being gradually replaced by F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, with the first two of 72 of that type delivered to RAAF Base Williamtown in December 2018.

Almost half the F-35 fleet has now been delivered to RAAF Base Williamtown, near Newcastle, NSW – the most recent being a nine-aircraft trans-Pacific delivery flight in November 2020, aided by RAAF KC-30A multirole tanker transport aircraft.

A ‘temporary’ fleet of 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets were purchased by RAAF about 10 years ago to fill a perceived capability gap between the ‘classic’ Hornet retirement and full operational capability of the F-35.

They were later joined by 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft (one since destroyed by fire and not replaced).

However, all those aircraft proved to be so capable, the RAAF now intends to keep them long term.

What’s currently left (less than half the fleet, according to the RAAF web site) of the F/A18A (single-seat) and F/A-18B (two-seat) Hornets have one last year to serve – which, coinciding with the Royal Australian Air Force’s Centenery and the COVID-deferred Avalon Airshow, means the Australian public will likely see them flying about a time or two more before they finally say goodbye.

PHOTOS BY SERGEANT DAVID GIBBS AND CORPORAL DAVID SAID Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

99

1984 - 2021

100

Featuring the best from CONTACT Air Land & Sea – Australia’s best boots-on-the-ground military e-magazine

CLASSIC HORNET

FAREWELL

Subscribe free at www.aussiecombat.com

101

Still available to collect

from www.contactairlandandsea.com/contact_shop.htm

2015

2017

2016

Invictus Games Sydney

2018

2019

CONTACT is dedicated to presenting stories, photos and video that capture the essence of serving-members’ lives, as far as possible in their own words.

CONTACT web site is our internet-based headquarters where we publish daily news and other interesting, related items. We also use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube as ’embassies’ where we engage our audience, inviting them back to our headquarters.

CONTACT newsletter is a free fortnightly email-based publication that draws attention to recent news stories. Its intent is to bring readers the best of the previous fortnight in a handy-reference format, linking back to the original story in our headquarters (web site) – and updating developments in older stories.

CONTACT Air Land & Sea magazine is a high-quality, full-colour, features-based magazine published four times per year. Initially launched in March 2004 as a traditional paper-based magazine, it switched to digital in 2013. It is now only available by free subscription.

Web: www.contactairlandandsea.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/CONTACTmagazine Email: editor@militarycontact.com Mail: PO Box 3091, Minnamurra, NSW 2533

Subscribe: www.aussiecombat.com Phone: 0408 496 664

20 2 0 YE ARB O O K