Five Powers join forces at Burnham

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 22

Five Powers join forces at Burnham

A week-long five-nation Army command post exercise will begin at Burnham Military Camp on November 21. The exercise will be held under the auspices of the Five Power Defence Arrangements which were signed in 1971 between the Governments of Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The exercise, Southern Safari, will involve 254 soldiers, 50 from Australia, 60 from the British Army in Hong Kong, 54 from Malaysia, 30 from Singapore, and 60 from New Zealand. The exercise aims to develop the partners’ capability to work together. Command post procedures at brigade and battalion headquarters levels will be practised. Southern Safari is one of a series of F.P.D.A. land

and maritime exercises that have been held in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore in the last few years- . ... The latest exercise will be held in two parts. The first, from November 21 to November 23, will be a tactical exercise, without troops, in the Oxford area. Commanders and their staff will cover problems in relation to the defence of a brigade area, at battaliongroup level. The second phase, from November 24 to November 28, will be a command post exercise at Burnham camp. Because battlefield simulation techniques and a large terrain mapboard will be used, it will not be necessary to deploy troops, vehicles, and equipment. During Southern Safari British servicemen at West Melton and Ohakea on a separate communications

exercise will relay administrative traffic back to Hong Kong and. the United Kingdom. They will not be taking part in the .exercise itself, but will be supporting exercise staff. A New Zealand Army spokesman and a defence spokesman at the British High Commission in Wellington said that the British exercise, Instant Mercury, had originally been part of the Southern Safari exercise, but had grown to the stage where it had become an exercise in its own right and the communications experts would no longer be taking part in the exercise itself. The New Zealand Ministry of Defence is not involved in the British exercise, except for providing logistic support for the visitors.