Land: Talisman Saber 2013: more than just a combat exercise | ADM October 2013

To the casual observer, Talisman Sabre exercises are all about amphibious warfare, a perception no doubt fuelled by pictures and television footage of US Marines storming ashore at Shoalwater Bay, or of massed US Army parachute insertions, or perhaps Australian Army Abrams tanks and ASLAVs on operations in thick bushland.

But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find multiple layers to the exercise which aren’t quite as newsworthy as the tanks, ships and helicopters but no less important.

Talisman Saber 2013 (the spelling alternates between English and American depending who has the exercise lead) was no exception. This year it engaged a whole range of civilian organisations in the scenario. Agencies like the Australian Federal Police, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, AusAID and even real diplomats all played a part in the unfolding scenario.

Exercise overview

Although the amphibious aspect was very important, especially in the light of establishing doctrine for the RAN’s LHDs, Talisman Saber 13 exercised a range of scenarios, from the breakdown of law and order, civil unrest and subsequent human rights violations, through to the high-end warfighting phase traditionally associated with the exercise.

While past Talisman Sabre exercises have also exercised these scenarios, TS13 represents up to date and realistic serials which, when strung together, mimic a real-world descent from unrest to warfare as closely as possible.

“We establish some fictional nations to our north, one of which is Kamaria, our traditional training adversary, which eventually becomes the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA),” explained TS13 spokesman Brigadier Bob Brown to ADM. “The exercise scenario is engineered to achieve the maximum amount of our objectives and starts with a peace enforcement-type exercise, moving to hand off to a United Nations Chapter VII-type mission and that brings in all the humanitarian, refugee, displaced persons and a lot of the other agency play into the exercise.”

Blue forces are required to intervene in a deteriorating ‘country’ which is becoming increasingly belligerent towards its neighbours and the traditional warfighting phase begins with a twin-pronged amphibious landing in the SWBTA and a battalion-sized air drop.

Outcomes and goals

The buzzword around Talisman Saber 13 was interoperability and this is probably the most important objective of the exercise. US and Australian military and civilian agencies benefit greatly from working together under realistic conditions and several ‘firsts’ occurred, including the first tactical airdrop by C-17 heavy airlifters from two nations and the integration of the guided missile frigate HMAS Sydney into the USS George Washington Carrier Battle Group.

The overall goal is to train the US 7th Fleet and the Australian Deployable Joint Force Headquarters as a Combined Task Force, known as CTF660.

TS13 Commander was Vice Admiral Scott Swift, then Commander of the US 7th Fleet, and his deputy was Australian Brigadier David Coghlan and the Senior ADF Officer and Chief of Staff for the Exercise was Air Commodore Tim Innes, RAAF.

“The major benefit the US gets from the exercise is to participate in the Pacific from a joint perspective,” offered VADM Scott. “It’s also the largest combined exercise that we participate in that has that joint contribution by the US and Australia.”

Developing the ADFs amphibious capability was also an important component and TS13 was used as a stepping stone to TS15, which will see participation of the first LHD, HMAS Canberra. TS17 will have both LHDs involved, as the ADF seeks Final Operating Capability.

“The ADF’s amphibious capability is nascent and relatively new for us. We are going from a very modest capability to by regional standards, a world-class capability,” BRIG Coghlan aboard the 7th Fleet Command Ship, USS Blue Ridge explained. “It’s going to take us some years and this is one of those important steps along the way to make sure we benchmark where we are, so in two years time at the next Talisman Sabre we will have a better amphibious capability, along the road to FOC in 2017.”

Civil agencies participation

The inter-agency style operations were co-ordinated during the exercise by the Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC), established in 2008 as part of the government’s commitment to regional peace and prosperity.

Outside Talisman Sabre, ACMC interacts with Headquarters Joint Operations Command on a regular basis to advise and assist with co-ordination between civil and military organisations for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief operations, peacekeeping and military ventures.

ACMC has assisted development of the ADF’s ‘Strengthening Australia’s conflict and disaster management overseas’ document and has participated in discussions with the Land Warfare Development Centre on the ADF’s ‘Regional Security Framework’ study.

“We have done this before in other Talisman Sabre exercises, but at TS13 there was a strong emphasis on interagency-type operation,” BRIG Brown said. “ACMC played a role in co-ordinating civil and military participation in the exercise and there were in excess of 60 personnel from a number of agencies involved.”

Civil agencies included the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, US State Department, USAID, AusAID, the Australian Federal Police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Real diplomats from DFAT and the US State Department played roles in TS13, including efforts to resolve the worsening ‘international’ situation and ultimately enacting the fictitious UN Chapter VII resolution.

“To make it as realistic as possible we try to bring in actual political play,” BRIG Brown explained to ADM. “So we have real diplomats involved as they would be in real attempts to seek diplomatic outcomes. They begin with the political decision making at the top and move down to the breakdown and then the need to insert large scale forces.”

A whole range of humanitarian disaster-type scenarios were also played out including the movement of displaced persons and refugee assistance and management. There was also a darker aspect to the exercise.

“The AFP and FBI performed a couple of serials relating to forensics, more in the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief space,” BRIG Brown said. “Both of those agencies have worked together on these issues in the past, but at TS13 one of their roles was to investigate fictitious atrocities.” 

Combat operations

As the diplomatic situation worsened, maritime activities included the establishment of a Maritime Exclusion Zone and control by RAAF and US Navy P-3 Orions and warships from both nations. Special Forces then performed a series of battlefield ‘shaping’ exercises, including a serial conducted at the Urban Operations Training Facility (UOTF) in the SWBTA.

The major feature of combat operations during the ground element however was the large-sale joint force entry operation, which saw a major amphibious landing of US Marines in the south and a more modest insertion of Australian forces from HMAS Choules in the north. This was coupled with a battalion-sized parachute drop from the US Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division who had flown directly from their base in Alaska.

The airdop required five USAF C-17s to accomplish and the necessary mid-Pacific air-refuelling bracket involved five USAF KC-10A tankers - claimed to be the largest C-17 air-refuelling exercise to date. Two of the American C-17s recovered to Amberley after the insertion and later claimed another first when they conducted a tactical airdrop with two RAAF C-17As in the first ever tactical-level ‘interfly’ between two C-17operators.

Amphibious operations off Choules were an important step in the development of Australia’s amphibious capability, but US operations centred around the LHD USS Bonhomme Richard were also carefully observed.

“This was the Amphibious Readiness Element (ARE), which is about two Company’s worth of 2RAR and Headquarters elements,” BRIG Brown said. “In the interim we’ve used HMAS Choules as a vehicle to do that, but there was a lot of interaction with the US amphibious assault as well, particularly in terms of integration of the air aspects into the landings.”

Choules was forced to chop away before TS13 concluded to form part of the joint task force to increase immigration facilities on Manus Island, but its objectives had nevertheless been achieved.

“I think we’re comfortable that we achieved pretty much what we wanted to do, which was the certification of the ARE and this is Step One to us acquiring the first of the LHDs,” commented BRIG Brown.

The combat phase of TS13 consisted of a Force Integration Training (FIT) period during the first week, followed by the Field Training Exercise (FTE) phase and culminating with a Live Fire element, which involved Naval Gunfire Support and the release of live weapons from RAAF Super Hornets. The Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters also used this phase as an opportunity to conduct Hellfire air to ground missile firings.

Role of simulation

What was different about TS13 however was that the Command Post Exercise (CPX) was overlaid with the FTE element, involving interaction of real forces with Virtual and Constructive elements.

“The CPX brings in all the simulated play and is largely run out of the EXCOM in Hawaii, which enables the higher Joint-Task Force objectives to be met,” BRIG Brown said. “In the past we haven’t always done this overlay of the CPX live and it requires staff to be pretty adroit at manoeuvring between constructive and live forces in terms of the scenario. It’s really the only way you can test the Headquarters staff.”

Although it will take some time for the lessons learned to trickle down, TS13 has been hailed as a success in terms of integrating capabilities.

“We can’t underestimate the value we get out of these exercises from an Australian point of view. We just don’t have the opportunity to operate at that level without the US being involved,” concluded BRIG Brown. “We are very happy that the big objectives were achieved, the certification at Command and Control level, and it was a big step toward our amphibious capability.”