Specialists train for invisible threats

Protecting the deployed force against an invisible threat seems almost impossible. However, during Exercise Orient Shield, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) decontamination specialists honed their skills to meet that challenge.

Soldiers from the Australian Army, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) and the United States Army came together at Camp Higashi-Chitose in Hokkaido, Japan, to train in this specialist role and learn from each other.

A team of CBRN specialists from across 1 Div and the wider Army observed the training. The US Army and JGSDF demonstrated best practices for both small-scale and large-scale decontamination.

LT Tim Neuberger said he was keen to see how the US and JGSDF ran their decontamination serials, hoping to learn how countries with well-established CBRN protocols approached each task.

“I think these trilateral training opportunities are extremely important, increasing interoperability across the forces and learning from each other to best refine our tactics, techniques and procedures,” LT Neuberger said.

“This is a great opportunity to see how other nations handle the CBRN threat – observing the JGSDF and US Army conduct the scenarios and discussing their techniques and procedures, including individual troop, vehicle and even helicopter decontamination.

“Watching them train together has given me a lot of confidence in their capability, both as individual nations and when working together in a coalition environment.”