2 August 2024
What started with a convoy to one of Australia’s most remote areas finished with the same vehicles rolling off barges on the Tiwi Islands and Darwin weeks later.
The 2000km out-and-back journey to East Arnhem Land – by land, air and sea – showed that the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment-led (1CER) Battle Group Goanna could switch from nation-building to combat at a moment’s notice.
They were in Nhulunbuy during July for 1st Brigade’s premier warfighting Exercise Predator’s Run, chopping almost 30 tonnes of firewood in support of the Garma Festival before embarking on contracted barges to island hop across the Top End.
One of two battle groups made up of engineers, infantry, artillery and other soldiers, Battle Group Goanna rehearsed the concept of engineers as a 'stand-in' force – forward deployed boots on the ground in a remote location ready to roll from construction to combat.
Their final objective was to secure the Tiwi Islands before notional-HIMARS and NASAMS were deployed. Although the long-range missiles are yet to be delivered, 1CER’s 23 Support Squadron spent months creating realistic replicas.
Using the 40M-mounted decoys along mangrove beaches, Battle Group Goanna commanders advertised their presence to draw the enemy out before the 'real' assets were deployed.
It was a scene lifted right from the pages of the 2024 National Defence Strategy, a light-littoral force securing airfields and sea access to enable staging of strategic assets.
1CER are at the heart of 1st Brigade's transition to a light-littoral combat brigade – with sappers calling the changes “quick and deliberate” as they said goodbye to M113 AS4 'buckets' and hello to boats.
“I miss the buckets but I’m excited for littoral operations,” Sapper Julian Randall said.
“Our capability is changing because Defence needs something new from us.
“Engineers are the battle group’s artery, the conduit to get people and equipment onto targets, securing airfields and making repairs.
“It's good to see that we’ve been trusted with this capability.”
9 Field Squadron, previously mechanised, is Battle Group Goanna’s littoral manoeuvre specialist.
'Engineers are the battle group’s artery, the conduit to get people and equipment onto targets, securing airfields and making repairs.'
1 Field Squadron provides the same littoral-engineer capability to the 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment-led Battle Group Tiger, with 23 Support Squadron providing reconnaissance, dive, construction and combat rescue.
After a stint at Kapooka, Sergeant Callum Macdonald returned in time to see 9 Field Squadron sail into new waters.
“Mechanised was always that big, frontline, hard-shoulder approach to combat,” Sergeant Macdonald said.
“I had some really rough days in Cultana on Rhino Run that really made me think, though.
“Some people are nostalgic about losing the M113s; it can be hard to change from something you know really well to something new.”
The turquoise waters off East Arnhem Land are far removed from Cultana’s rolling hills.
Sappers are likely to see even more of these remote shores in coming years, as 1st Brigade’s capability matures and Army becomes optimised for littoral manoeuvre as part of the integrated, focused force.
Commanding Officer 1CER Lieutenant Colonel Travis Day said his engineers needed to support the brigade’s model of operating forward with dispersed battle groups and combat teams in the region.
“This brigade is designed to fight dispersed and decentralised,” Lieutenant Colonel Day said.
“We generate brigade-level effects without unnecessarily concentrating our forces, increasing their survivability on the contemporary battlefield.
“This requires our sappers to operate in small teams providing specialist mobility, counter-mobility, survivability and sustainment to the dispersed forces of the 1st Brigade.
“We’re more likely to be laying beach matting, conducting beach landing surveys, digging in high-value targets and repairing runways to allow those first planes and ships to arrive with other elements of the joint force.”
