Urban Operation Training Facility lit up during assault exercise invaluable for partnership training

Explosions rung out through the complex and smoke filled the air as the enemy were engaged by a force of Japanese, American and Australian soldiers during vital urban training in North Qld. See the photos.

Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Brent Hughes works alongside soldiers from United States Army and Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force during an assault at the Urban Operations Training Facility on Exercise Brolga Run, on 24 May 2024, at Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland. Photo: CAPT Brittany Evans

An urban training exercise has proved that team work does make the dream work after the Japanese Self-Defense Force, Australian Army and United States Army worked effectively together to clear buildings from enemies while navigating explosives and booby traps.

In the early hours of Friday morning an unsuspecting enemy party, which was played by 3RAR, was bombarded with an assault led by Japanese and 1RAR soldiers at the Urban Operations Training Facility (UOTF) as part of Exercise Brolga Run.

Enemy soldiers had occupied the compound since Monday, taking two American SAS soldiers as prisoners after their failed reconnaissance mission and kept an eye on a small group of civilians staying close by.

Making their way through the maze of stacked shipping containers the Japanese and 1RAR soldiers pressed forward with heavy fire, as a portion of the enemy fought to maintain their position before they were pushed out of the core of the facility and sent fleeing into the surrounding scrubland.

Before long, the U.S. Army showed up to offer increased support to the attack, quickly proving their efficiency in navigating an urban environment, locating and disarming targets and ensuring medical assistance was applied to their wounded before they evacuated them to a safer location.

An Australian Army soldier from 1st Military Police Battalion and his Military Working Dog Petra during an assault at the Urban Operations Training Facility on Exercise Brolga Run, on 24 May 2024, at Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland. Photo: CAPT Brittany Evans

The conjoined force was able to disarm the final enemies and clear the rest of the buildings.

Colonel Benjamin McLennan said that exercises such as the urban assault are great opportunities to learn and develop new skills in a controlled environment, while also learning how to work together with partner nations.

“We are asking them to do something that’s really complicated and quite dangerous and they did it. It wasn’t perfect but it doesn't need to be perfect,” he said.

“What matters is the learning that we derive from it and digesting that as quickly as possible to then sustain what we’re doing well and improve what we need to do better.”

“We’ve got different people with different cultures and different languages. It makes it even harder when you can’t talk because the communication is degraded by the enemy, or the geography or whatever it might be.”

Soldiers from the United States Army during an assault at the Urban Operations Training Facility on Exercise Brolga Run, on 24 May 2024, at Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland. Photo: CAPT Brittany Evans

“Cohesion, their ability, their resilience and their robustness, all of those things are important and this is an opportunity to learn how to be better at that in a no-consequence environment. No one is going to die here and national prestige is not at stake here.”

Colonel McLennan said the main positive takeaways from the exercise was the ability to bring diverse backgrounds and skills together to achieve a common goal.

“In terms of things we can do better; communicating, controlling, having the foresight to predict things and then being able to take advantage of opportunities or shield against threats. These sorts of things you’ll see feature in all of the activities we do,” he said.

“Drops of sweat saves buckets of blood so that’s what this was all about, its an indelible learning experience.”

Originally published as Urban Operation Training Facility lit up during assault exercise invaluable for partnership training