Action-packed month for the ready brigade

Rapid deployment, interoperability and force projection were successfully rehearsed on Exercise Diamond Trident in and near Weipa in Far North Queensland late last month.

CAPTION: Army soldiers from the 7th Brigade arrive at RAAF Base Scherger in Weipa, North Queensland, during Exercise Diamond Trident 2024. Story by Major Martin Hadley. Photos by Captain Thomas Kaye.

Battle Group Heeler, comprising soldiers from Army’s 7th Brigade, primarily from 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, and joined by Kiwi soldiers from the New Zealand Army’s 1st Brigade, was hastily re-tasked after just completing its annual warfighting and live-fire exercise, Diamond Run, at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland.

Commander 7th Brigade Brigadier Giles Cornelia said the combined readiness activity was nested with the Royal Australian Air Force’s Exercise Mobility Blue Gum.

“What we have just conducted is training to seize, open and hold an airfield and we have lodged over 400 soldiers from an Anzac Battle Group at the very northern tip of Queensland, some 2000 kilometres from the start point,” Brigadier Cornelia said.

“We mounted at very short notice out of a warfighter exercise, and were able to reconstitute with the support of the Royal Australian Air Force and the United States Air Force at RAAF Base Amberley, deliver confirmatory orders, load artillery, protected mobility vehicles, stores, equipment and troops and launch the force with a flight time of just under three hours.

“The activity is a tactical air land operation. We had five aircraft with 45-second intervals conducting tactical flying and then coming in fast and seizing the airfield with our troops offloading and assuming tactical battle positions.”

CAPTION: C-17A Globemaster IIIs from the Royal Australian Air Force and United States Air Force land at RAAF Base Scherger in Weipa, North Queensland, during Exercise Diamond Trident 2024.

Brigadier Cornelia said the activity generated readiness and capability between two essential components of the integrated force – Air Mobility Group with its air transport assets and 7th Brigade.

“The 7th Brigade is the ADF’s ready brigade, which permanently generates the Ready Battle Group. The Battle Group must be able to deploy rapidly and the quickest way to go is by air,” he said.

The Battle Group then worked with deployed personnel from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to safely evacuate Australian citizens and Approved Foreign Nationals from the fictional war zone within 24 hours of touching down.

CAPTION: Army soldiers from the 6th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, dial in 81mm mortars at RAAF Base Sherger in Weipa, North Queensland, during Exercise Diamond Trident 2024.

“The NEO [non-combatant evacuation operations] demonstrated a whole-of-government response to a crisis by supporting DFAT with its crisis response plan actions in a rapidly deteriorating security situation, which was a key part of our mission,” Brigadier Cornelia said.

“This extraction was only possible after we had, in a joint land combat sense, set the security conditions to recover the civilians.

“Our Battle Group performed superbly. Seeing our combat power in action was an outstanding opportunity for all involved, and a rare treat for me as Commander 7th Brigade.”

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