FCP 2010 Hailed A Success
12 March 2010
With ships, aircraft and personnel at a higher level of readiness and weapons, sensors and systems finely tuned, Fleet Concentration Period 2010 has been hailed as a success.
The four week annual exercise involved thousands of Navy, Air Force and Army personnel.
HMA Ships Anzac, Warramunga, Arunta, Darwin, Ballarat, Newcastle, Sirius, Huon, Diamantina and Gascoyne operated with HMNZS Te Mana and RAAF F-111, F/A-18 and Hawk fighter jets in the Eastern Australia Exercise Area.
HMA Ships Manoora, Balikpapan, Betano, Brunei, Labuan, Tarakan, and Wewak were joined by HMNZS Canterbury and soldiers from 3 Brigade for amphibious exercises in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.
Australian Clearance Dive Teams ONE and FOUR, Mine Sweeper Auxiliaries (MSA) Bandicoot and Wallaroo and aircraft from 816 and 817 squadrons also took part.
Training approach
HMAS Anzac’s Commanding Officer and the FCP Task Group Commander, CAPT Peter Quinn, CSC, believes the exercise’s graduated approach has paid off.
“The new FCP format with ’themed’ weeks, each culminating in a mini-war has worked very well”, he said.
“Overlayed on the themed weeks was a task unit graduated training progression philosophy where exercises were deliberately increased in their level of complexity as the FCP progressed.
“This philosophy ensured that the basics of each mariner skill or warfare area were properly embedded through lower level exercises and simulation prior to the expensive, more demanding training assets such as RAAF F111 and F/A-18 Hornet aircraft participating in the activities.
The ‘mini war’ concept was adopted after observing the Royal Navy’s training methods and they have proved to be both highly effective as well as a lot of fun”, CAPT Quinn said.
“In each of the mini wars the warfare commander, ships and aircraft had to react to a dynamic program that was not known to the ships’ teams.
“The ships had to be ready for anything from immediate reaction to air, surface and submarine threats, including unalerted live firings, a short notice shore bombardment and replenishment operations.
“There was certainly enough going on to keep all the FCP fleet units on their toes.
The Commanding Officer of HMAS Anzac also said it was fantastic to see the lessons learnt and skills gained during the FCP being put into practice in the highly effective mini-wars.
Lessons learned
Openly sharing lessons learned between ships daily was also a key factor in the success of this year’s exercise.
“Right throughout the fleet—from the COs down—information was exchanged through signals, emails, via chat rooms, voice circuits and by many other methods.
“This was undertaken deliberately so as to share our successes and challenges to improve our effectiveness in every possible facet”, CAPT Quinn said.
Outstanding support
While much of the training happened in operations rooms, on upper decks or in the air, supporting personnel afloat and ashore also played their part.
“FCP hasn’t just been about warfare serials, seamanship exercises and bridge training, all departments have received a thorough work out”, CAPT Quinn said.
“Our engineers kept our propulsion plants, sensors, weapons and combat system running and finely tuned; our logistics teams kept us well victualled with stores received in good time and the admin train moving; and the multitude of headquarters, establishments and contractors ashore ensured whatever support and services we needed to keep us at sea and in the exercise were received.
“Overall, an extremely successful FCP”, CAPT Quinn said.
