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BRADSHAW FIELD TRAINING AREA, Northern Territory, Australia – The U.S. Marine Corps joined with the Australian Defence Force to demonstrate and practice the capabilities of a Marine Air Ground Task Force during an airborne assault here during exercise Talisman Sabre 2015 July 10.
First Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, combined with 8th/12th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, and 5th Royal Australian Regiment for the assault in Bradshaw Field Training Area.
During the past month, Marines and Australian soldiers have cross-trained within each other’s companies creating a learning environment for the commands and individual troops.
“We have had outstanding opportunities to coordinate with our Australian partners,” said 1st Lt. Edward Peilen, a fire support team leader with Company C, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, MRF-D. “Our fire support team got to attach to an Australian joint fires team in which we got to see their standard operating procedures and how they bring fires to bear on the enemy.”
More than 30,000 personnel from the two nations are manning the exercise, preparing U.S. and Australian service members to work together to provide security in the region and around the world.
“It’s been a great partnership and we’ve learned a tremendous amount from the ADF,” said U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Eric J. Dougherty, the 1st Battalion commander. “We’ve been able to offer them a MAGTF capability, demonstrating all the capabilities that we have for our Marine Air Ground Task Force and bringing them here to the fight.”
The troops utilized helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft to insert into the scenario’s battlefield. Both U.S. and Australian artillery batteries shaped the battlefield with suppressive fire before Marines and Australian infantrymen inserted into the fight within 1,000 meters of the artillery strikes.
Fixed winged aircraft flew 500 km to join the fight with air assaults as 81mm and 60mm mortars softened targets.
The plan incorporated multiple weapons systems and platforms and maneuvers in order to bring the max amount of firepower on the enemy as possible, according to Peilen.
“We’re able to support the ground scheme maneuver, their direct fires with indirect fires in air, which will put the enemy on horns of a dilemma in order to quickly allow the ground element to fulfill the scheme of maneuver,” said Peilen.
Once they reached their notional objective, dust settled and hindsight came to bare, commanders from both forces expressed satisfaction with the performance of the troops.
“They have been pushing strong for almost a month now in the field and this was an excellent capstone exercise to demonstrate our capabilities that we’ve been working toward during our entire stay here in Australia,” said Capt. Brian Green, company commander with Company C, 1st Bn, 4th Marine Regiment, MRF-D from Vero Beach, Florida.
| Date Taken: | 07.15.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2015 06:12 |
| Story ID: | 170056 |
| Location: | NT, AU |
| Hometown: | VERO BEACH, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 67 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, U.S. and Australian troops combine for mock airborne assault, by Cpl Samantha Villarreal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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