Exercise Wirra Jaya in the Northern Territory brings together Australian and Indonesian forces for combat training

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Around 300 Australian and Indonesian soldiers are undergoing their largest ever yearly combined combat training across Defence stations in the Top End, battling heatwave temperatures and pandemic precautions.

 

Exercise Wirra Jaya is a three-week training exercise held every year between the two militaries in either Australia or Indonesia.

About 200 men of the Indonesian Army, or Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat, spent two weeks in the Defence-contracted Bladin Village quarantine centre near Darwin this year to participate in the eighth edition.

 

5RAR Delta Company Officer Commanding Major Gregory Sargeant noted, "It's very different from last year, when we performed it in a virtual environment owing to COVID-19."

"We've been focusing on motorised training with our Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles (an armoured four-wheel drive), as well as urban operations, looking at very basic levels of combat shooting," he says.

 

The training is intended to allow units from both nations' military services the opportunity to experience working together, similar to the larger training sessions performed annually with visiting US Marines.

Building ties between Australian and Indonesian personnel is a priority for both military, according to their leaders.

 

"It's almost more important than the training itself, being able to understand and trust our neighbours," Major Sargeant said.

 

"We had all soldiers practising their Bahasa [Indonesian language] in the lead-up to [the exercise]... to varied degrees of success."

 

Soldiers from Indonesia and Australia commended social sport with bridging the linguistic divide.

"We played soccer with the First Brigade team last week, and the Indonesian Army triumphed 2-1," said Lieutenant Colonel Anggun Wuriyanto, Contingent Commander of the Indonesian Army.

"[The Australian Army] is incredibly helpful and nice to us, just as they would for their own family."

 

Indonesian servicemen are training using Australian Bushmaster vehicles as part of Exercise Wirra Jaya, with 15 of the vehicles set to be sent to the country to support peacekeeping operations, according to Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

Major Sargeant indicated that the training will involve urban operations exercises, in which defence forces would practise manoeuvring and firing in simulated villages or dwellings.

 

The battalion has yet to resume using live gunfire for urban operations training after the death of a young Australian soldier in a similar exercise in the Top End four years ago, with blanks or "dry runs" utilised in Exercise Wirra Jaya.

"It's critical that we establish a foundation of trust before moving on to any real training... we won't move on to live training," Major Sargeant stated.