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The Australian Defence Force has deployed 70 personnel to support France’s multinational combined field training exercise Croix du Sud.
The Australian contingent includes a C-27J Spartan and their crew, a Civil-Military Centre team, combat engineers, military police, health teams and planning personnel.
The exercise will be held in New Caledonia as well as Wallis and Futuna.
Chief of Joint Operations Vice Admiral Justin Jones explained that continued regional engagement is critical, with like-minded nations addressing similar security and humanitarian concerns.
“The ADF’s continued support to French-led Exercise Croix du Sud demonstrates the importance we place on collective action and cooperation in response to disasters and security incidents. The Pacific has a proud record of working together across common security concerns, which will continue long into the future,” VADM Jones said.
“The specialist staff deployed to New Caledonia will strengthen our interoperability with partners and work to improve regional resilience to HADR events.
“We look forward to continuing our commitment to multinational exercises and regional security.”
The exercise is scheduled to conclude on 4 May.
Captain Mark Sirois, RAN, explained that it will help shape Australia’s HADR response capabilities.
“I’m proud to deploy alongside men and women from across the services who each possess a specific skill set honed through experience and high-quality training,” CAPT Sirois said.
“We look forward to working alongside the Croix du Sud participant nations to provide core and specialist input into multinational and multi-agency planning for HADR response scenarios.”
