What the U.S. and Australia need to works towards is getting South Korea and Japan to participate in an exercise together in Australia instead of two separate ones running concurrently:
American soldiers and Marines helped kick off the largest Australian army exercise of the year alongside Japanese troops on Friday. Southern Jackaroo is slated to run until July 3 at Townsville Training Ground in the eastern state of Queensland, according to U.S. and Japanese officials. Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, the Australian army’s Townsville-based 3rd Brigade and the Japan’s Middle Army are participating, according to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
About 300 U.S. Marines are involved in the drill, along with 1,500 Australian troops and 400 from Japan, Capt. Kevin Hicks, a spokesman for the rotational Marines, said by email Friday. The Marines will “conduct offensive and defensive operations, live-fire platoon attacks, small-arms/indirect-fire employment, and a capstone multi-national combined-arms live-fire exercise,” he said. Southern Jackaroo “is the largest Australian Army exercise this year,” he said.
A Jackaroo is an Australian ranch hand. South Korean troops are also in Australia participating in Exercise Tiger Dingo, which runs concurrently with Southern Jackaroo, Hicks said. U.S. forces are training for littoral combat, which means jungle warfare, Australian defense researcher Allan Orr told Stars and Stripes by email Friday. “The only place in Australia that has a jungle environment is North Queensland,” he said of the area that encompasses Townsville.
Stars & Stripes
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