Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Big military op for top of the south
The top of the south will host a major international military exercise involving 2000 soldiers from 16 countries.
Exercise Southern Katipo, the biennial military operation is New Zealand’s largest and will see personnel deployed to Marlborough, Kaikoura, Tasman, Nelson and Buller regions over October and November.
The first part of the exercise starts in Blenheim with the arrival of the Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules, then soldiers will spread through Nelson and the top of the south.
The exercise is based around a scenario requiring military intervention due to political instability in fictitious Pacific Island nations called Becara and Alpira where there is a dispute over offshore oil reserves.
It is a continuation of the 2015 Southern Katipo war games that took place in the South Island.
Civilians will be encouraged to be involved in parts of the exercise taking place in areas around Nelson.
The scenario will see armed forces carry out operations in Westport, Greymouth, Nelson, Nelson Lakes, Kaikoura, Ward and the Marlborough Sounds.
In 2015 the first arm of the exercise was held in the Buller, Tasman and Marlborough districts. The operation made headlines when a mock protest in Murchison involving local residents got out of hand.
The event turned from an exercise into a confused ‘‘argy bargy’’, police said at the time.
While some witnesses said the NZDF went too far, others said it was all part of the scenario and the situation was well managed.
New Zealand Defence Force director of joint exercise planning Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dransfield says the incident was ‘‘unfortunate’’ but all attempts will be made to avoid a similar outcome during this year’s oper- ation. ‘‘It’s certainly not my intention, in this exercise, for us to run civil disturbances. I think both parties were satisfied with the way we handled it afterwards but it was a bit unfortunate and we will avoid that this time,’’ he says.
Dransfield says the operation will take place on land, sea and in the air using new and foreign equipment like a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster plane and a Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Hercules.
He says the involvement of other nations in the exercises increases disaster relief workability such as the recent Kaikoura earthquakes that saw American forces provide aid.
A battalion will combine soldiers across the participating nations: Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Brunei, Malaysia and Timor Leste, Australia, Canada, United States, France and Britain.
The exercise participants will begin arriving from the first week of October. Military role players will make themselves known to the community and the main military contingent will rapidly build up its forces in Blenheim and Picton from October 20.
A number of Navy ships will sit off the coast between Kaikoura and the Marlborough Sounds and regular day and night patrols will be conducted by soldiers either on foot or in vehicles.