Page 82 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2018

LAND FORCES
HAMEL
“Another first for the exercise this year was the inclusion
of Government representation from organisations like
DFAT and the AFP."
Captain Josh Lazarus, treats a role player
as part of a resuscitation training activity at the US Army National Guard Role 2 hospital at Camp Growl, Shoalwater Bay Training Area, during Exercise Hamel 2018.
Importantly, a whole of government di- mension was incorporated into a Hamel exercise for the first time this year, with representation including personnel from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Emergency Management Australia (EMA) and the Australian Fed- eral Police (AFP).
“Hamel is absolutely a Joint exercise and it’s absolutely a whole of government exer-
it has evolved far from just Army exercis- ing largely by itself in Shoalwater Bay. It is a premier hit-out for the ADF and indeed for our whole of government partners.”
Developing the ADF’s
amphibious capability
Although the primary goal of Hamel 2018 was the certification of Army’s 7th Brigade, based in Brisbane, as the current ‘Ready’
combat unit under the Force Generation Cycle, the Sea Series Exercise was integrated into the Hamel scenarios to achieve greater resource efficiencies and enhance the training outcomes of both activities.
One of the areas of primary focus with re- gard to the integrated
amphibious activity was the validation of Army’s Townsville-based 2nd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR Amphib) to form the nucleus of a Joint Pre-Landing Force (PLF). The PLF es- sentially comes ashore ahead of the main landing to initially provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to the Task Force Commanders and later to conduct battlefield shaping activities. Under the newly developed amphibious
capability, 2 RAR (Amphib) will be the permanent PLF in Army and will act as an amphibious subject matter expert.
The main landing force, or Ground Com- bat Element (GCE) in amphibious terms, will be rotated through Army’s infantry combat units each year in accordance with the aforementioned Force Generation Cycle. This year Brisbane-based 8/9 RAR were certified in the role and next year it will be the turn of the Adelaide-based 7 RAR. In a non-Hamel year such as 2019, the Sea Series Exercises will be integrated with the Austra- lia-US Talisman Sabre activity.
Army Aviation
Hamel 2018 was also a major test for Army Aviation, which conducted a major activity in the SWBTA in support of Land operations, with a task force made up of Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters and MRH-90 battlefield mobility heli- copters. Task Force Griffin operated as a single force under the command of Army’s 1st Aviation Regiment in the training area during the exercise.
Army Aviation also concurrently em- barked an Aviation Combat Element (ACE) aboard the Navy’s amphibious ships for the Sea Series dimension, operat- ing two different helicopter types for the first time. The embarked ACE was made up of CH-47F heavy-lift helicopters and
cise as well, the training outcomes we’ve achieved certainly reflect that,” explained Brigadier Ben James, Director General Training at Army Headquarters to ADM. “The exercise has evolved enormously over the last five to seven years and the ADF sees it as a key training and capability mod- ernisation opportunity for all our services, so it can’t be anything but Joint. Hamel 2018 has certainly demonstrated the real value of ADF Joint collective training and
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