Well drilled on disaster relief
CISE Hamel 2018 is in ss at Shoalwater Bay Military ng area. 3rd Brigade is in the “ready” phase of the force generation cycle, which it will pass on to the 7th Brigade in Brisbane if they can prove they are battle ready.
The two will face off with the 3rd Brigade playing the “enemy” in the fictitious war. This year’s exercise includes more than 5000 personnel. ENGINEERS from Townsville’s 3CER and Marine Rotational Force- Darwin ( MRF- D) have returned from the largest Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief exercise ( HADR) in the South Pacific – Exercise Croix du Sud.
Troops were hosted by the French Armed Forces of New Caledonia ( FANC) between May 14- 25 alongside 2000 other multinational participants.
Troop Commander Lt Joe Huston said the engineers embarked on HMAS Choules in Sydney before sailing to join the exercise in Noumea.
“We arrived in HMAS Choules in the country’s capital where we met the French company we would be working with throughout the exercise, ” Lt Huston said.
Little time was spared before the troops commenced force integration training.
Lt Huston said engineers were tested across various water activities at the French Commando Nautical Centre to build camaraderie before heading out in the field.
“It was great to see the troops working alongside the French and marines, breaking down barriers and forging relationships that continued into the field phase of the exercise,” he said.
Participants were thrown into a hypothetical tsunami scenario designed to test their response to a natural disaster while dealing with simulated civil unrest.
In a region prone to natural disasters, Lt Huston said this type of training was particularly relevant to those in his corps.
“As an engineer it’s important for us to train with regional partners to prepare for HADR operations, which we will likely be tasked to respond to,” he said.
“Engineers are often required to assist with the initial clean up following a disaster as well as providing support to security and stabilisation operations to deteriorating civ- ilian safety situations.”
The engineers conducted an amphibious beach landing, unloading 255 embarked troops and 57 French vehicles in preparation for the distribution of aid.
Lt Huston said his troops worked alongside MRF- D and FANC engineers, establishing vehicle checkpoints as well as conducting search tasks and route clearances in support of the wider HADR scenario.
He said this gave his soldiers a valuable opportunity to observe and learn from all the other nations.
“We all benefited from observing the procedures as well as learning to work through communication challenges,” he said.
Croix du Sud involved 11 ships, 13 aircraft and troop contributions from France ( New Caledonia), Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Indonesia ( observer) and Chile.