Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Royal Australian Navy, Captain Pete Bartlett explains what's involved in Exercise Kakadu

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Royal Australian Navy, Captain Pete Bartlett explains what's involved in Exercise Kakadu · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: As I'm sure you're probably aware, we know that Exercise
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  Speaker 1: Kakadoo is currently underway, so the Royal Australian Navy's exercise,
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  Speaker 1: and it does involve three thousand personnel from more than
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  Speaker 1: twenty countries as I understand it, and it's one of
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  Speaker 1: the biggest exercises in history, with eighteen surface ships, one
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  Speaker 1: submarine I think, and more than thirty aircraft. Now joining
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  Speaker 1: me in the studio to tell us a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more about this is Royal Australian Navy Head of Exercise Kakadoo,
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  Speaker 1: Captain Pete Barthlet. Good morning to you, Pete.
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  Speaker 2: Hello Katie, and thank you for the opportunity to come
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  Speaker 2: to your studio and speak about Kakadu to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm really interested to hear a bit more about
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  Speaker 1: it because you know, obviously we can't see as much
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  Speaker 1: of what's going on with Exercise Kackadoo as what we
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  Speaker 1: maybe do with the aircraft exercises that take place.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's true, Katie. This is our fifteenth iteration of
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  Speaker 2: the exercise. We do it every two years, although we
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  Speaker 2: miss the last one obviously for COVID, but we are
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  Speaker 2: operating primarily up to the north of the Tiwi Islands
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  Speaker 2: and to the west of Darwin into the exercise areas there.
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  Speaker 1: And so what kind of activities are involved in the exercise.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we have three primary phases of the exercise. We
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  Speaker 2: have the sea pay, we have the harbor phase sorry,
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  Speaker 2: and then we have a what we call force integration
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  Speaker 2: training and free play phases. So in the harbor harbor phase,
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  Speaker 2: we go through a bunch of briefs from weapon practice,
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  Speaker 2: safety briefs, Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment briefs, exercise brief,
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  Speaker 2: air safety briefs and so on. Plus we have sports
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  Speaker 2: days and receptions and so forth. So that gets the
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  Speaker 2: people together, which is what Kakadu about. Kakadu is about
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  Speaker 2: bringing our regional partners together, which is the important thing.
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  Speaker 2: Then we roll into what we call force integration training,
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  Speaker 2: and that's when we do the basic weapon firing, any
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  Speaker 2: submarine warfare, any ship, missile defense, constablity operations boardings. So
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  Speaker 2: we do that and then yesterday we've had a pause
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  Speaker 2: or what we would call a pause X where we
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  Speaker 2: will get the ships to goe to anchor over night
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  Speaker 2: and then we'll start a free pay war X today
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  Speaker 2: where they'll do more complex any submarine warfare, maritime strike,
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  Speaker 2: and air defense activities.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me about some of these vessels as well, because
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  Speaker 1: I guess, you know, we can't see a huge amount,
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  Speaker 1: particularly the submarine. How big are we talking here?
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  Speaker 2: So our Collins class submarine is off the top I
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  Speaker 2: had is about three thousand ton. It's actually one of
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  Speaker 2: the biggest conventional submarines in the entire world. So it's
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  Speaker 2: a big submarine, but it's a very capable platform. We
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  Speaker 2: have vessels such as the Fiji patrol boat, which is
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  Speaker 2: a a patrol boat about five or six hundred ton,
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  Speaker 2: and then we go through to our own Hobark class destroyers,
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  Speaker 2: which is a highly capable their warfare destroyers. But the
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  Speaker 2: really great thing about Kakadoo is that we've got all
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  Speaker 2: these regional partners with their capabilities, and there's some serious,
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  Speaker 2: serious capabilities and seriously good looking ships out there. So
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  Speaker 2: the ships in the Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, United States,
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  Speaker 2: they've all got their own capabilities and something to be
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  Speaker 2: seen and enjoyed.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anywhere that the general public can sort of
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  Speaker 1: see them from or not?
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  Speaker 2: Really? It's not really. Unfortunately the ships will come back
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  Speaker 2: alongside for just a couple of days. There'll be a
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  Speaker 2: couple of guys out at anchor. There'll be some guys
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  Speaker 2: at Fortill Wealth, and I think we've got some east
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  Speaker 2: arm so as you know, there's no public access to
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  Speaker 2: those ports. And with the guys at anchor, we really
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  Speaker 2: do like to have people not come too close because
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  Speaker 2: it makes people feel nervous when there's small boats approaching
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  Speaker 2: a ship at anchor, particularly when it's warship hey with them.
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  Speaker 1: With a vessel like the submarine, how many people are
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  Speaker 1: on that vessel at any one time.
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  Speaker 2: I think the corona of cons class submarine is in
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  Speaker 2: the order of sixty sixty four people.
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  Speaker 1: And is that like, you know, for a person like
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  Speaker 1: me who's never been on a submarine, what is it like?
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  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 1: Can they do everything like you normally would be able to.
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  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that there's cooking facilities and all that kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing, like in a.
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  Speaker 2: Submarine is a little cramped, but yes, they absolutely have.
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  Speaker 2: They have their own galleys, they have their messes. I
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  Speaker 2: don't even think they're hot bunk anymore, which is awesome
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  Speaker 2: because of the older submarines they used to share bunks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah right, so roll out your sleeping bag, get in,
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  Speaker 2: roll your sleeping bag up, and the next guy gets
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  Speaker 2: into your bunk. But that's all gone. That's old world.
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  Speaker 2: The New World has got a very complex and capable platform.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah wow, it's look, I think it's such an interesting life. Now,
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  Speaker 1: what countries are taking part in this exercise?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's over twenty four countries and exercise Kakadoo. If
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  Speaker 2: you include the Fleet Commander's conference, it gets up to
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  Speaker 2: about thirty five And basically you will see people from
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  Speaker 2: Northern Europe, Germany, Norway, Belgium through to the Middle East,
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  Speaker 2: Arab Embrates, Pakistan, India, through Asia, the Southwest Pacific right
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  Speaker 2: over to the Americas. We've got United States and Chilean
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  Speaker 2: folks and pete.
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  Speaker 1: How is this going to sort of you know, how
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  Speaker 1: does it benefit Australia's defense capabilities by having an exercise.
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  Speaker 2: Like this one. Well, we're getting people together, right, So
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  Speaker 2: we we've got folks from all over the worlds I
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  Speaker 2: just mentioned, and we're all working together with a common
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  Speaker 2: purpose and we're learning to communicate, exchange information, exchange data
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  Speaker 2: and operate together and enhance our own skills in warfare.
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  Speaker 1: Now just on a very different note, But I understand
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  Speaker 1: that there's been some changes to the naming of the warships.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, so the direction came out a couple of
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  Speaker 2: days ago that we will now refer to our warships
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  Speaker 2: as His Majesty's Austraian Warship, and we will go through
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  Speaker 2: the transition of all of our bits and pieces that
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  Speaker 2: have gone from having a queen to a king in
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  Speaker 2: good order, in the appropriate manner.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, is there a huge amount of change or is
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  Speaker 1: it not? You know, is it not too much change?
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  Speaker 1: I guess when it comes to doing.
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  Speaker 2: That, actually there will be a little bit of change.
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  Speaker 2: So the obvious one is Her Majesty's Warship to His
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  Speaker 2: Majesty's Warship. But it's the things like the crowns on
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  Speaker 2: the cress they are different for a king vice a queen.
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  Speaker 2: Buttons and just bits and pieces all over the place
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  Speaker 2: with signage and so forth. But that'll be done in
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  Speaker 2: the measured manner. It's not like we're going to rush
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  Speaker 2: out and spend lots of money straight up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is one of those things that is
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  Speaker 1: going to need to change. But yeah, little things that
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  Speaker 1: a lot of you know, a lot of us probably
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have even thought.
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  Speaker 2: Of absolutely, and I'm sure if we drawed into it,
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  Speaker 2: there'll be many things that we will change.
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  Speaker 1: But in due course, yeah, hey, how much longer is
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  Speaker 1: the exercise on? For?
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  Speaker 2: So Kakado will complete on Saturday, We'll have our closing
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  Speaker 2: ceremony on Saturday night, and then ships will start to
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  Speaker 2: sail to their home ports on the Sunday or in
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  Speaker 2: the following days.
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  Speaker 1: Well head of Exercise Kakadoo, Captain Pete Bartlet, we really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for coming
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  Speaker 1: in and telling us a little bit more about it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie. I'm really welcome the opportunity to speak
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  Speaker 2: to you and your listeners about Exercise Cacado.
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  Speaker 1: No laurries at all, Thank you, Thanks for your time.