The Australian-American allied relationship is one of America’s oldest, deepest, and continuous friendships—Exercise TANDEM THRUST was its most recent manifestation.

Demonstrating the highest levels of cooperation and interoperability between allied forces, Australian and U.S. militaries trained together in March 1997 in exercise TANDEM THRUST 97.

With 252 aircraft and 43 naval vessels, more than 28,000 military personnel from the two countries flew together, marched together, and sailed together in and around the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, located in Queensland, Australia.

TANDEM THRUST 97 was a U.S. Pacific Command sponsored combined/joint task force training exercise. Its main objective was to train elements of the Australian Defense Force and the staff of Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet in crisis action planning and execution for contingency operations in the Pacific area.

The strength of the exercise, according to Australian Army Maj. Gen. Tim Ford, Deputy Commander, Combined Task Force TANDEM THRUST, was interoperability and training with numerous mission objectives pursued at many different military levels.

"It was a great integrated coalition force," Maj. Gen. Ford said. "I never thought we’d have problems at the unit tactical level. We’ve done that before with Navy RIMPAC exercises, Army CROCODILE exercises, and Air Force PITCH BLACK exercises all the time."

The challenge during this exercise as Maj. Gen. Ford saw it, was to integrate at the upper staff operational level.

"Our staff was completely integrated into departments in every branch. I’d say 99 per cent of our mission objectives were met and to a very high degree of professionalism," Maj. Gen. Ford said.

Air Commodore Ray Perry, Royal Australian Air Force, served as Deputy Commander, Combined Forces Air Component Command (CFACC) for the exercise with U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John R. Dallager, as the Commander, CFACC.

"Most evident to me was the degree of integration in the Combined Forces Air Component Command activities," Air Commodore Perry said. "We had Australians working for U.S. service members and U.S. service members working for Australians as if there was no difference.

"I wasn’t surprised it happened, but I was surprised at how quickly it occurred. Nobody does it better than the U.S. and Australia working in coalition. There seems to be a synergy of effort," observed Air Commodore Perry.

For many Air Force and Army personnel accustomed to working ashore, coordinating the exercise from aboard the Seventh fleet flagship, USS Blue Ridge, was a first.

"The first couple days you could tell people were adapting to working from aboard ship," Maj. Gen. Dallager said. "But what you have here is C4I gear that is literally world class, and that’s essential to coordinating air campaigns. There were some work arounds. Nothing goes perfect every time. But personnel found the ingenuity they needed as an integrated team."

An unplanned adversary which wielded sizable influence was Tropical Cyclone Justin, which freakishly maintained nearly the same position and strength throughout the exercise. The cyclone sported greater than hurricane-strength winds for two days, reaching 90 knots, but for more than two weeks whipped about on a circular path with a roughly 400 nautical mile diameter at just under hurricane-strength winds.

Airplanes could fly to alternate air strips and ships could detour around the storm, but there was deep concern about flooding out the ground troops at the Shoalwater Bay Training. In addition, the transit of USS Independence Battle Group was delayed two days because of precautionary measures taken because of the storm.

"I really have to thank the storm for giving us the opportunity to react to real-world problems and get training we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten," U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Robert J. Natter, Commander, Combined Task Force TANDEM THRUST, said.

According to Vice Adm. Natter, weather was another possible crisis to plan around, which forced exercise planers to adjust to a real-world situation, much as they would if this was an operation and not an exercise.

"I was real comfortable with the quality and type of training we got from the exercise," Maj. Gen. Dallager said. "There was less training in some areas because of the cyclone. But that was more than compensated for by reacting to the real-world situations."

"Until you deploy 28,000 people, you can never know what problems will be associated with deploying 28,000 people," Maj. Gen. Ford said.

"And working in coalition with U.S. forces really extends our ability to practice operational planning. In order for us to even approach an exercise this large on our own, we would have to virtually put every single ADF [Australian Defense Force] member in the field," he said.

"This also directly fits in with the task of my new staff, recently stood up as Deployable Joint Task Force Headquarters (Land)."

Firsts for the exercise included controlling air forces for the first time by air component commanders embarked on a U.S. Navy flagship. Using the excellent training facilities at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, units conducted live-fire exercises at Townshend Island, Pyri Pyri, and Mt. Hummock live-fire ranges, all in Australia’s Queensland area.

Also, according to the senior officers embarked on the USS Blue Ridge for the exercise, it was the first time such complete integration of forces, from foot-soldier to flag officer, was achieved between Australian and U.S. forces in recent years, if not decades.

"We had three different environments, air units, ground units and naval gunfire," Maj. Gen. Ford said. "It’s not an easy thing. Just the air space management joining those three environments on the same piece of dirt without incident is an accomplishment. We did that."

"We’re most comfortable dropping live fire in concert with U.S. forces," Air Commodore Perry said. "There’s a level of trust that’s been built up. We have the confidence that everyone’s familiar with procedures. When dealing with live-fire, that’s when safety is really paramount."

"An advantage of continuing exercises like these is - Adm. Natter won’t be in his position forever - Maj. Gen. Ford -- none of us. We’ve got to continue the capability of things that have taken a long time to develop," said Air Commodore Perry.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet conducts over 100 bilateral exercises a year with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region as part of U.S. Pacific Command’s cooperative engagement policy. TANDEM THRUST 97 was by far the largest and most complicated exercise in the Pacific region in many years.