Exercise Talisman Sabre
Legoland' braces for invasion as part of troops' urban war games
- Sean Parnell and Mark Dodd
- June 12, 2007
A GLEAMING, high-walled building in the middle of a muddy marketplace will be the focal point for tens of thousands of US and Australian troops as they improve their preparedness for war.
To a growing number of protest groups, the newly constructed building - part of the Urban Operations Training Facility at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland - is a mosque, demonstrating the West's deep-seated suspicion of Islam.
But to Lieutenant Colonel Peter White, overseeing construction of a fictional town at Raspberry Creek, due to be occupied for the first time in Exercise Talisman Sabre, which is getting under way, the building is simply a generic cultural centre.
Although the building could be used to depict a mosque in exercises - some of the US marines who have arrived at Shoalwater Bay see it that way - it could also be a church or museum.
In a place known to contractors as "Legoland", the cultural centre is the only building with glass windows instead of kickable perspex, and is built of brick instead of reconfigured shipping containers.
"The purpose is for troops in exercises to treat this building differently, with the appropriate respect and sensitivity," Lieutenant Colonel White told The Australian.
The Shoalwater Bay facility is revolutionising defence training.
While troops once trained on open plains, recent conflict and the threat of terrorism presented a need for urban warfare training, and the UOTF is part of Defence's $11 million response. "It's an incredible system, like a paintball game except 1000 times more complex," said Australian Defence Force spokeswoman Lieutenant Barbara Butler.
"It's got tunnels," she said. "It's built up from 370 (shipping) containers and made to look like something out of Mogadishu with real role players, villagers and merchants.
"The big challenge of urban warfare is civilians. It's dangerous because you are fighting close to (unarmed) people."
The war scenario to be played out in Exercise Talisman Sabre has not been revealed. But it will be undertaken on a massive scale, with US and Australian forces combining to lend 30 ships, 125 aircraft and 27,500 personnel for the exercise, which will intensify from tomorrow.
The UOTF will have a continuing role as part of a national and ultimately global defence training network. It has control centres with hi-tech instrumentation systems, motion censors and cameras across the town (in particular the government offices) and GPS tracking and laser weapons and vests for the soldiers who will train there.
Up to 80 "civilians" will occupy the town for exercises and pyrotechnics and a concussion cannon will be used to simulate explosions in an area where live firing is banned.
"The soldiers will be routinely training in a joint army, navy, air force environment and get to practise with various other assets that would be available to them," Lieutenant Colonel White said, emphasising the lower cost and risk.
"If they're going to Afghanistan and getting air support from the Americans, they can practise that all in Australia first."
