Australian/New Zealand Clearance Team begin to clear a safe
path into the unexploded ordnance hazard zone with handheld
metal detectors. Photo/Supplied.
New
Zealand and Australian ammunition technicians have been
laying down for the cause of combined training as they share
practices and procedures for disposing of live
ammunition.
The technicians from the New Zealand
Defence Force (NZDF) and Australian Defence Force (ADF) took
part in Exercise Safe Step in Waiouru this month as part of
the leadup to next year’s multi-national Exercise Talisman
Sabre in Australia.
The high-stakes work can involve
lying flat on the stomach, meticulously searching with
fingertips for buried unexploded artillery projectiles or
aerially delivered cluster bombs.
Clearance Team members conduct detailed search and detection
of suspected subsurface unexploded ordnance.
Photo/Supplied.
Exercise Director,
Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Dean Rennie, of the NZDF
Defence Explosive Ordnance School, said mastering shared
practices and procedures was vital for safely locating,
disabling, and destroying live, unexploded
ordnance.
The exercise was designed to improve skill
sets, strengthen collaboration, improve ammunition technical
specialists’ interoperability, and enhance the collective
capability of both countries to conduct conventional
munitions disposal.
Clearance Team members conduct detailed search and detection
of suspected subsurface unexploded ordnance.
Photo/Supplied.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Scenarios included
clearing the area around a battle-damaged truck and its
towed L119 105mm light gun for unexploded ordnance so it
could be safely recovered by 16th Field Regiment, and
locating unexploded ordnance like cluster bombs using metal
detectors and fingertip searching.
Another scenario
involved an attack onto a gun position by armed drones which
resulted in casualties and the disposal of a drone which did
not explode.
Other elements of the exercise included
conducting bulk demolitions of unserviceable and expired
NZDF ammunition.
clearance team members set up the demolition remote firing
device being used to trigger demolition charges on the
unexploded ordnance.
Photo/Supplied.
“The exercise
scenarios faced by the ammunition technicians were
deliberately complex, realistic and at times, confronting.
One of the more complex tasks took the team eight hours to
problem solve,” WO2 Rennie said.
Australia’s
Director of Land Munitions, Logistics Branch, Colonel Matt
Dwyer, observed the Waiouru exercise and said the NZDF
operators were “first-class”.
“Our two nations
have built trust and common procedures in preparation for
Talisman Sabre, and I can say after observing the Kiwi team,
they’re first-rate ammunition technicians.
“This
combined exercise is an example of Plan Anzac coming to life
by aligning capability, training, readiness, and personnel
to improve joint operations, regional security, and
humanitarian assistance in the South
Pacific.”
