US, UK and Australia take part in Exercise Global Dexterity

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A joint military training exercise involving personnel from the US, British and Australian air forces in Queensland has finished. The exercise provided an opportunity to strengthen ties between strategic partners.

Transcript

00:00 From the ground and the air, exercise Global Dexterity made its presence felt across the

00:10 South East.

00:11 Hundreds of personnel from the United States, UK and Australia took part.

00:17 It's one thing to train in isolation, but it's also incredibly important that we're

00:21 able to put that stuff, put our lessons into practice with partners and with allies.

00:28 What's unique about this exercise that I've seen is that we've gone to the level of integrating

00:33 crews.

00:34 The training exercise takes place twice a year, allowing troops to skill up on one of

00:40 the country's largest aircraft.

00:43 The C-17 is a very, very important strategic asset.

00:46 What I mean by strategic is that it's often, you know, it's the first in and first out

00:50 to regional areas where there's often, you know, humanitarian or disaster relief recovery

00:55 efforts underway.

00:56 The exercise has conducted training missions to PNG and North Queensland.

01:01 From natural disasters to peacekeeping operations, this massive plane can transport hundreds

01:07 of personnel and heavy cargo.

01:10 Today's flight is just the scenic route though, applying from Amberley to Noosa and across

01:15 to the Gold Coast.

01:17 It's the first time British forces have joined the exercise.

01:21 The terrain out here is nothing like we've got in the UK.

01:24 It's very flat terrain, so it's fantastic to actually practice in the mountains, lots

01:29 of different things to consider, which is great for our training.

01:32 While it's a chance to strengthen crucial ties between the three nations, the climate

01:37 has brought its own challenges.

01:40 Struggling.

01:41 So yeah, when we landed, we left the UK a week and a half ago and it was minus two degrees

01:46 and then came out here and landed in 33 degrees.

01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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