Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel have joined regional partners in New Zealand for Exercise Southern Katipo 2013.
Australia’s commitment includes a contingent of 150 people, with soldiers from the 3rd Brigade’s Ready Combat Team and support staff from the wider ADF.
Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Ash Power said the amphibious stability and security exercise would be held on the North and South Islands from 7 - 28 November.
“Exercise Southern Katipo 2013 is a field training activity, with the ADF contributing specialist support personnel to work alongside the New Zealand Defence Force to plan and conduct activities,” Lieutenant General Power said.
“New Zealand will form a Combined Joint Interagency Task Force for the exercise, with participating militaries and NZ civil agencies.
“Participation is expected to reach 1500 personnel from Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Tonga, United Kingdom and the United States.”
Lieutenant General Power said Australia and New Zealand had a long tradition of mutual commitment to each other’s security.
“Our defence forces have a close relationship, tested through many years of shared contribution to security operations and peace keeping – most recently in Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan.
“Exercise Southern Katipo 2013 allows us to train together to maximise interoperability for regional operations,” said.
Exercise Southern Katipo is a valuable opportunity to build ADF, NZDF, and regional militaries’ interoperability in planning and responding to regional humanitarian assistance and disaster relief contingencies under the Anzac Ready Response Force initiative between the Australian and New Zealand militaries.
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