US Marine Corps exchanges are under way to help develop Australian amphibious capability.
Four new Australian positions have been established with the US Marine Corps (USMC) to support the development of the Army’s amphibious capability.
Coinciding with the recent arrival of Fox Company 2/3rd Marine Regiment in Darwin, Captains Luke Condon and Ben Watson have been embedded within the 13th and 15th Marine Expeditionary Units and Major Matthew Cross is embedded with the Special Operations Training Group.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Smith, who is posted to HQ Marine Forces Pacific on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, said the officers posted to Marine Expeditionary Units would become great assets to the Army.
“These officers will come back to Australia having experienced amphibious operations and ready to impart their knowledge,” he said.
“This knowledge will be fed back into our own amphibious force.”
The two officers posted with the Marine Expeditionary Units are part of a two-year posting serving alongside Marines and undergoing the full range of training before deploying with the units in their coming operational afloat periods.
Major Cross works with the Tactical Exercise Control Group in the Special Operations Training Group – Pacific, whose task is comparable to our Combat Training Centre used to train and certify units before deployment.
Captain Condon, who is posted to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit as the logistics plans officer, said working with not only the Marines but also other international militaries conducting amphibious exercises was a great opportunity.
“Although only six months into the two-year exchange posting, I’ve been involved in the planning and conduct of two USMC joint international engagement exercises,” he said.
He worked with the Japanese Self Defence Force as part of Exercise Ironfist 12 and the Indian Army as part of Exercise Shatrujeet 12.
Captain Condon will continue to provide logistics planning support to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit for the duration of his posting, experiencing further international exercises and a deployment in mid-2013 to experience the amphibious capability firsthand.
Lieutenant Colonel Smith, in his role at HQ Marine Forces Pacific, supports the collaboration between Army and USMC forces.
He said the position of an extra liaison officer located in the Pacific was required to support the increased training and exercising the two countries would be doing together.
“Right now my position is being used to support an increased flow of information between the two organisations as the Marines look to develop their Australian rotational force concept,” he said.
“I’ve been made to feel very welcome. The Marines hold the Australian Army in very high regard and see our service holding the same ethos and professional culture as their own.”
The four positions were established at the start of the year as the Army’s Amphibious Ready Group is expected to launch by 2017.