Joint Fires Teams and artillery pound Hawaii

Australian Army Joint Fires Team (JFT) soldiers are busy in Hawaii conducting missions in support of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2018 (RIMPAC).

CAPTION: Australian Army Joint Fires Team (JFT) soldiers in Hawaii conduct a fire mission in support of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2018 (RIMPAC).

Nine JFT soldiers are supporting the exercise as part of a multinational Task Force led by the 2nd Battalion (Amphibious), Royal Australian Regiment.

Australian soldiers and Indonesian marines were also working with US Marines from Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment – The Black Sheep – to fire M777A2 155mm howitzers during live-fire training at Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii.

 

 

Captain David Vereen, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, said the focus of the exercise was to stress his unit’s ability to provide fire support in a combined, joint, allied and partnered environment.

“We are working with Indonesian artillery, Australian, New Zealand, American, and Canadian fire supporters, to find ways to integrate our different SOPs and TTPs so that if crisis calls, and we have to work together, everybody’s walking away with great ideas, ways to improve things,” he said.

“Seeing the way that somebody else does something, and saying ‘we can adapt that’ will make us better.

“It’s great for every nation that’s involved in RIMPAC.”

On the gun line with the Black Sheep, Australian Bombardier Tyler Wolfenden, said working with the artillery battery in Hawaii had been a great integration.

“To work with our doctrine and their doctrine and see how we correspond and how we can make ourselves better and we can make the American artillery better,” he said.

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