Exercise Kakadu closes with focus on regional relief

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The Royal Australian Navy’s biennial international sea exercise Kakadu 2022 has come to a close, with more than 3,000 people from 20 countries taking part in joint combat drills to strengthen capability and response in increasingly contested international waters.

Roping in 16 warships, including destroyers, frigates, corvettes and littoral (near-shore) combat ships and a submarine, 15 vessels converged on Darwin and then set out in two task groups for the naval equivalent of group work.

The ‘sea phase’ of Kakadu is the sharp end of the drills, with the two task groups facing off against each other “in a tactical warfare scenario, testing the full capabilities of each ship and crew” Defence said.

That means keeping crews on their toes and making sure they can aim fast and true at a variety of attackers and targets while under the stress of full battle conditions.

“Ships undertake gun firing and defend themselves against fast-jet fighters simulating guided missiles from sophisticated P-8 maritime patrol aircraft or from a submarine,” Defence said.

The event is billed as the “largest international maritime engagement activity hosted by the Royal Australian Navy in its history.”

Exercise Kakadu began in 1993 with the involvement of four navies, 15 ships and submarines, and 2,000 personnel.

Since then, it’s evolved into the main fixture showcasing Australia’s sea power, which has become a renewed focus of force projection amid offshore humanitarian relief missions increasingly necessitated by climate change.

The exercise’s officer commanding, Commodore Paul O’Grady, said all units in the exercise practised humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery “and rendering assistance to ships that are distressed or disabled at sea.”

“One of the really exciting opportunities at Kakadu is to train and operate with partners and nations we don’t often get to, particularly after the COVID pandemic,” O’Grady said.

“We get to get together with our regional partners and other visiting partners so that we can operate together at sea and in the air, and do so effectively across a whole spectrum of activities and operations.”

Darwin holds particular significance for Australia’s military, having been the target of air attacks during World War II, with reminders of wartime and practice bombings still being found.

Last week a team of five Navy clearance divers deployed from Sydney to Darwin after suspected unexploded ordnance (UXO) was found by commercial divers near the Ship Lift development site in the East Arm precinct, Darwin Harbour.

Operating in conditions where visibility was at best only half a metre, the clearance crew rendered the suspected UXO safe.

“We were given GPS coordinates from divers who found the UXO and provided a safe exclusion zone in which to operate by the Darwin water police,” executive officer of Clearance Dive Team One Lieutenant Matthew Smith, said.

“From there we were able to relocate the UXO and carry out what we call a high order detonation. This involves laying plastic explosive on top of the item before a remotely controlled detonation.

“After the controlled detonation, one of our clearance divers conducted an assessment of the site where the explosion occurred to confirm that the UXO had been disposed of successfully and no longer proved to be a hazard to the area and the public,” Lieutenant Smith said.