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Speaker 1: Australia's largest army led exercise in the Northern Territory is

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Speaker 1: going to commence this Saturday, running from the seventh of

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Speaker 1: September and residents, well we'll running until I should say

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Speaker 1: the seventh of September. Residents of Darwin and the Tewei

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Speaker 1: Islands could see an increase in armed soldiers as well

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Speaker 1: as vehicle and helicopters driving exercise. It is going to

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Speaker 1: happen during Exercise Predators Run. Now, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Gill

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line right now to tell us more.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to.

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Speaker 3: You, Matthew, Hello Kachie, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Really well, thanks so much for your time this morning. Now,

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Speaker 1: what will Exercise Predators Run involve?

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Speaker 3: So we have the whole of the first Brigade elements

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Speaker 3: from a few other units within Australia in Darwin. We've

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Speaker 3: also got a number of international partners from the Philippines

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Speaker 3: Team or least day Indonesia and the Marine Rotation Force Darwin,

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Speaker 3: all working together to fight an enemy which has been

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Speaker 3: put into this region to just attest some concepts for us.

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Speaker 1: So it sounds like it's going to be quite a

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Speaker 1: massive exercise.

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Speaker 2: How many personnel are taking part, so.

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Speaker 3: I'd estimated it's about two and a half thousand soldiers

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Speaker 3: all up. So people in Darwin are going to see

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Speaker 3: they're going to see a little bit of a surge

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Speaker 3: from what is normal from day to day. And a

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Speaker 3: good thing will be that you'll see soldiers carrying weapons

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Speaker 3: which they might not be used to. They might see

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Speaker 3: them with cam cream, they might see them moving with

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Speaker 3: intent looking for these evasive enemy players which have been

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Speaker 3: put out into the community.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So it sounds like it's going to come

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Speaker 1: across quite realistically to territorians if they see this exercise underway.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was part of the exercise design. We

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Speaker 3: want it to be as realistic as if our soldiers

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Speaker 3: have moved into an area in the near region, invited

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Speaker 3: in by a country in the near region. So it

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Speaker 3: would be there would be civilians, I mean, you know, children, visitors, people,

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Speaker 3: residents are more than welcome to actually go up and

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Speaker 3: engage with the soldiers and find out what they're doing.

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Speaker 3: We actually want that to happen.

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Speaker 1: And you said that there will be personnel who are armed,

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Speaker 1: I mean, could it look quite confronting for territorians.

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Speaker 3: Look, I don't think it'll be confronting. A lot of

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Speaker 3: the activities will be undertaken in It's not going to

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Speaker 3: happen in the middle of a built up area, per se.

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Speaker 3: We've designed the exercise so that when things like that happen,

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Speaker 3: it shouldn't be too confronting. You know, you may hear

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Speaker 3: blank ammunition going off, and all I'd say is, if

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Speaker 3: you use the territory, it will be very unimpressive, So.

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Speaker 1: It won't be anywhere near Is there as much activity

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Speaker 1: as what we hear on territory Day.

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Speaker 3: No, I'd sad be a tone down version of that.

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Speaker 1: Now is that going to be the case across, like,

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Speaker 1: right across the days that it's happening or will there

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Speaker 1: be sort of specific dates and we can expect more activity.

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Speaker 3: I think you'll find that early on, you know, from

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Speaker 3: the twenty sixth, it will be reasonably quiet and it

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Speaker 3: will get a little bit more intent as we get

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Speaker 3: towards the end of the exercise, because the scenario will

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Speaker 3: escalate to a crescendo and then it will be over.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And where will all the activities be taking place?

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Speaker 2: I mean you sort of touched on it then, but

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Speaker 2: just talk us through that.

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Speaker 3: So we have elements which will be operating within the

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Speaker 3: city of Darwin, mainly around the harbor, but we have

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Speaker 3: a large portion of it will actually happen on Malville

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Speaker 3: Island in the Tiwi Islands, right and then there will

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Speaker 3: be the usual set of activities out of Mount Bundy

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Speaker 3: Training area.

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Speaker 1: And tell me, is that focus on sort of coastal

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Speaker 1: battles linked to recommendations of the Defense Strategic Review or

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Speaker 1: why is that the case?

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Speaker 3: And it is linked to the Strategic Defense Review? This

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Speaker 3: brigade is looking to shift its focus from what we

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Speaker 3: used to do when we used to have the armored regiments.

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Speaker 3: We're moving to a lighter footprint, specializing in the tail operations,

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Speaker 3: which is essentially the coastal strip and up into groundwater

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Speaker 3: luck rivers, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: And has that taken quite a bit of work to

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Speaker 1: sort of transition to that or is it you know,

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Speaker 1: is it just one of those things that you guys

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Speaker 1: are sort of quite used to. I suppose changing your

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Speaker 1: exercises to suit, you know, to suit the way in

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Speaker 1: which you're moving.

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Speaker 3: A lot of a lot of workers have gone into

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Speaker 3: figuring how we transition to the new role with what

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Speaker 3: we currently have because there's a lot of work to

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Speaker 3: come in new equipment, boats, etc. So we're working with

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Speaker 3: what we've been given to make it work, improve the

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Speaker 3: concept so we can move forward and give Army recommendations

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Speaker 3: about what does and what doesn't work.

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Speaker 1: Now, Matthew, I know you mentioned it before, but which

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Speaker 1: countries are going to be taking part again?

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Speaker 3: So we have our faithful Marine Corps partners. They're actually

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Speaker 3: quite busy at the moment, but they're dedicated helicopters and

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Speaker 3: up to a company of soldiers around one hundred and

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Speaker 3: twenty soldiers to this activity. We have one hundred and

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Speaker 3: twenty from the Philippines who arrived yesterday. We have one

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Speaker 3: hundred and twenty from Indonesia, the majority of which arrived yesterday,

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Speaker 3: and we have up to seventy from team or less day.

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Speaker 3: So it's a really mixed group and it's awesome to

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Speaker 3: work with the forces of the Near Region.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, Lieutenant Colonel

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Speaker 1: Matthew Gill, the Chief of Staff, First Brigade, really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: And letting our listeners know exactly what is going on.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's a pleasure. Thank you very much, thank you