- Developing Military Skills for Today
15 June 2010
Soldiers from Burnham’s 3rd Land Force Group, and Air Force personnel from Ohakea spent two weeks working alongside each other, preparing for likely operational deployments to sustain current overseas missions.
This was a Combined Arms Task Group exercise which included infantry, armoured crewmen using Light Armoured Vehicles, engineers, artillery, medical, logistics and Air Force personnel, carrying out tasks in Ranfurly, Naseby, St Bathams and through to Omarama before culminating in a live fire exercise in Tekapo.
The exercise was based on a conventional training scenario. Central Otago and the McKenzie Basin were transformed into a fictitious island nation known as South Leziwt. Political unrest had caused tensions, forcing the Army to intervene. Troops headed there to restore order and evacuate any New Zealanders who needed to move. The people of local towns Naseby and Ranfurly helped “act out” the scenario, and were involved in the evacuation.
“Soldiers spend a lot of their training building individual skills but this exercise allowed those skills to be tested both individually and as a group” says the Commanding Officer 2/1 Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh McAslan.
“Working as a Combined Arms Task Group is exactly what we would be doing in any operation, either here or overseas. Each part of the Defence Force has its own specialty; the power is when they are combined.”
There will be more information about Exercise Saladin in the July issue of Army News.