United Nations of military exercises to welcome US Army’s special addition to local dog beach

More than 700 US soldiers are expected to set up camp near a popular Queensland dog beach as they prepare for a first in ‘the United Nations of military exercises’.

More than 700 US Armed Forces personnel are expected to set up camp at the Bowen Showgrounds next month as they prepare to build a pier off a local dog beach in a first for a large Australian military training exercise.

Brigadier Damian Hill from the Australian Defence Force’s Joint Operations Command said soldiers from one of the US Army’s Transportation Brigade Expeditionary (TBX) units would start arriving in the first week of July to build a temporary, 274m-long pier off Kings Beach along Kings Beach Rd.|

In an effort called Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS), Brigadier Hill said the logisticians should take about four days to construct a floating, steel pier in preparation for the 10th iteration of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 (TS23), Australia’s largest bilateral, biennial military training activity with the US.

“They’re going to bring their army landing craft (off ships), connect to the pier and deploy capabilities off the pier through Bowen and up to Townsville for the land activity,” he said on Thursday.

Australian Army Brigadier Damian Hill. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“In our region, especially during disasters, we don’t often have access to port facilities.

“They have the ability to create their own port facility … this is the first time we’ve been able to have them here.”

The TS23 director said the temporary structure, which he described as a bit “like Lego blocks that clip together” would also help take some pressure off Queensland’s already-busy shipping ports.

“It takes a years to build a port, so a do-it-yourself pier is an incredible capability,” he said.

“Just before the exercise starts it will be established and they’ll start rolling equipment off their ships and onto the pier.’’

Members of the US Coast Guard will provide security to the soldiers establishing the dock, which is then expected to be removed in August.

The Canberra-based Brigadier Hill, 48, said it will be the first time such a thing has been done during TS23, which has become the largest multilateral military training exercise in the southern hemisphere with 19 nations involved this year.

He said representatives from the Netherlands Ministry of Defence and the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces will be on their inaugural visit to small section of the training, while military personnel from the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will attend as observers for their first time.

A US Marine is seen as troops disembark from landing craft in the background in Bowen during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2019. Picture: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

India is also returning to observe for a second year, he said.

Active participants this year include military units from more than 12 other allied including from Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, France, the UK, Canada and Germany.

Brigadier Hill said nations are invited or request to become involved with Exercise Talisman Sabre.

“We’re always trying to do something different to test ourselves and bring more the nations into the fold,” he said.

The officer said the aim of the observer status was for those countries to first understand what specific type of training their militaries would need to undergo and how to incorporate them in a multilateral exercise the size and scale of Talisman Sabre if they’d like to participate in the future.

“Talisman Sabre is bilaterally agreed between the US and Australia, but multilaterally planned and executed,” Brigadier Hill said.

More than 1000 men and women from the armed forces storming the shores of Bowen's Kings Beach in a previous training exercise. Picture: Daniel Wetzel

Describing TS23 as “the United Nations of military exercises”, Brigadier Hill said undertaking complex training activities with partner nations was one of the strengths of western democracies.

More than 30,000 military personnel are expected to converge on Australia for the 14-day exercise, which will include large scale logistics, multi-domain firepower demonstrations, land combat, amphibious landings and air operations.

More than 22 ships from six different nations will also take part, along with different types of military aircraft from the US and Australia.

The peak of the fictional war games are scheduled to take place between July 21 and August 4, primarily throughout Queensland but also in parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales.

The “high end” warfighting scenarios are mostly conducted throughout the ADF’s 454,500 hectare Shoalwater Bay training area in Byfield, about 80km north of Rockhampton in Central Queensland, as well as in adjacent maritime and airspace areas of the Coral Sea but will also take place along the coast and as far north as Weipa.