ARMY DRILL GETS REAL
AS workers fill office buildings, children head off to school and malls are packed with shoppers, they are oblivious to the lethal modern warfare taking place just 30 minutes from Townsville.
It’s all part of a simulated warfighting training exercise for Townsville’s 3rd Brigade, with the live fire attack using armoured vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and dismounted soldiers.
The brigade’s graduated training exercise, Exercise Long Khanh, is the culmination of a number of s m a l l e r training exercises that have taken place over the past month as part of Exercise B r o l g a Run.
Commander of the 3rd
Brigade
Brigadier Kahlil Fegan said the training activity simulated a high-end warfighting task typically seen overseas. “Everything we’re seeing is live fire, everything is lethal and everything (here) is what we’d be deploying and using if we found ourselves in a warfighting environment overseas,” he said.
“I’ve rotated thousands of soldiers through the training that we’ve conducted up here over the last month, but (involved in Exercise Long Khanh) is a combined arms combat team.
“Just over 100 soldiers will actually be physically doing the assault on the ground but what y o u c a n ’ t see is h u n - dreds of soldiers who are directly or ind i r e c t l y supporting that attack.
“What we’ve been able to achieve out here in this austere and robust environment is a significant increase in the level of standards and capabilities that we’re able to deploy, so this is the first of this size for the 3rd Brigade this year.”
Engaging several roles including signallers, snipers, joint fires control operators and company commanders, tanks were used to clear a number of mine obstacles to allow infantry to secure an area.
Heavy artillery could be heard around the attack area, with helicopters used to remove “casualties”.
The end task is to train a combat team that is certified to conduct high-end warfighting in a complex environment.
The live fire attack exercise was named after the Battle of Long Khanh, which took place during the Vietnam War between June 5 and 7, 1971.
Brigadier Fegan said the exercise had been a significant display of the capabilities of the Australian Defence Force.
“It’s reinforced in my mind that the Australian soldiers, if not one of the best, are arguably the best trained soldiers available quite possibly anywhere in the world,” he said.
“Not only that, it reinforced just how lucky we are in the 3rd Brigade, residing in Townsville, to have a worldclass training area within half an hour’s drive of our barracks.
“Conducting Exercise Brol
It reinforced just how lucky we are in the 3rd Brigade, residing in Townsville, to have a world-class training area within half an hour’s drive of our barracks ga Run … has given me the opportunity to live out here with the soldiers in the field and I must say I’ve been very, very surprised and impressed by the high standards our soldiers have.”