Before the exercise, participants conducted maritime activities, including anti-submarine activity and amphibious training, off the coast of Townsville. Participating ships from the east and west coasts of Australia steamed toward the exercise area, defending against mock attacks by FA-18 and F-111 strike aircraft.
 |
HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) and landing ship HMAS Tobruk (LSH 50) steam line astern for mine-field transit during the at-sea portion of Exercise CROCODILE.
Photo courtesy of Australian Department of Defence |
Commenting on the goal of the exercise, Australian Army Lt.-Col. Andrew Plant said, “The aim is to practice and evaluate a combined Australian and U.S. task force in the planning and conduct of operations. The majority of the insertion activity . . . will be preceded by some advance force operations involving Special Forces, SASR [Special Air Service Regiment from the Australian Army’s Special Forces Group], and commandos.”
Lt.-Col. Plant explained that the field phase of the exercise would involve five stages. “The first part will be the preparation, which will involve the transit of maritime task groups to Townsville,” he said. “Then the shaping phase, which is to prepare the battle space for entry operations. The next major phase is the entry operations – conducting amphibious insertions and . . . airborne insertions. Then the decisive engagement phase – the conduct of decisive maneuver and practicing forces’ objectives. The final part will be the live-firing exercise. At the end, obviously there’s the transition to extraction of forces and the exercise winds down.”
Exercise Planning
When the ADF needs to fight, it will most likely be alongside U.S. Forces, so we need a high level of interoperability with our major ally.
Cmdr. Bill Garner, Royal Australian Navy
Planning for Exercise CROCODILE, the ADF’s major training activity for the year, takes place at the ADF Warfare Centre, which plans and conducts all of Australia’s exercises. The lead ADF planner, Royal Australian Navy Cmdr. Bill Garner, said that the ADF must maintain levels of preparedness for warfighting across all capabilities to be effective and prepared for all possible roles. “As we have seen in recent operations, when the ADF needs to fight, it will most likely be with U.S. Forces, so we need a high level of interoperability with our major ally,” he observed.
|
|
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) breaks away from a replenishment at sea refueling with auxiliary oiler replenishment vessel HMAS Success (AOR 304) during Exercise CROCODILE. The USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) is in the background.
Photo by AB Neil Richards, RAN |
|
|
