Army launches multinational Exercise Southern Jackaroo in Townsville

Alongside partners from the United States, Japan, Papua New Guinea and South Korea, the exercise began in Townsville on 29 May and is expected to run through to 3 July.

“This is not routine training. It is a rehearsal for war. A deliberate test of readiness, resilience and trust,” Australian Commander 1st Division, Major General Ash Collingburn said.

“That is a shared challenge across all our forces, and this exercise is where we build that readiness together.”

Between the armies, high-tempo training exercises focused on ensuring that in the event of a global conflict, allies can effectively and efficiently integrate systems together.

Exercise Southern Jackaroo also allows for the partner nations to train in an environment unfamiliar to their typical training terrain.

“Our training field in Japan is very limited, very narrow. On the other hand the training environment in Australia is incredible,” Commander of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force contingent, Colonel Soichi Yamazaki said.

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“So we can conduct a fire exercise at maximum range and we can use UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles] without any limitation.”

This also applies to operational practices, with Commander of the United States Marine Corps contingent, Major Trevor Kerchner saying that exercises like these enhance communications and command and control measures that may differ.

“Specific to language barriers, we use things like terrain models or we use pictures in the dirt to create an environment similar to the map,” Maj Kerchner said.

“Even though we might not have the same terminology or language, we can visualise what we are trying to do on the map together and create a mutual understanding.”