Kangaroo 95 Exercise Repor

This scenario of low level and sporadic incursions was designed to test the ADF against the kind of threat that could develop against Australia at short notice. As such the emphasis of K95 was very much on land warfare with the RAAF and RAN primarily acting in support of ground operations.

Orangeland forces mounted a series of incursions across the exercise area with ‘attacks’ against oil rigs in the Timor Sea, raids against RAAF Tindal, the capture of the townships of Wyndham and Mataranka, and the invasion of Groote Eylandt. Naturally Blue Forces were successful in repelling all attacks or recapturing lost ground, but Orange Forces, with a healthy complement of SAS, were reportedly harder to defeat than they were supposed to be, despite Blue Force’s massive numerical superiority!

At the pointy end of the RAAF’s participation in K95 were 10 F/A-18s from 75 Squadron. Like the F-111s, much of the Hornet’s operations were ground attack missions in support of the Army, although as the exercise went on progressively more time was spent on intercept missions of Orangeland’s Elliot Fighters (Learjets). Initially the exercise’s rules of engagement meant that the Hornets would intercept and visually identify Orangeland aircraft which had penetrated Australian airspace. Only later were they cleared to ‘shoot’ them down. Other missions included escort of paradrops, combat SAR, maritime strike and naval air defence. 76 Squadron deployed to Tindal with two PC-9s for FAC and visual reconnaissance and four Macchi MB-326s for light ground attack. The two PC-9s are unique among RAAF PC-9s in that they have external fuel tanks, extending their mission endurance. Due to the low level nature of the exercise, there was little call for the FAC services, although the exercise provided a good training opportunity. Likewise the deployment of four Macchis and their crews was as much good training and experience for the Squadron as much as participation in the actual exercise. 76 Squadron’s Macchis flew a couple of ‘real’ close air support missions but mainly did their own training flights.

K95 was termed a free play exercise, with commanders given a high degree of freedom to position and move units as they felt necessary in response to the threat. The exercise had a number of major objectives that had to be met, such as a large paradrop and an amphibious landing, but outside this units were free to manoeuvre as they wished. As is the nature of exercises though, the need to fulfil objectives and gain the maximum training benefit from the exercise meant that particularly for naval operations rules of engagement occasionally disallowed contacting units to engage each other so that a pre planned style of battle could be fought later on. That said Blue Force commanders were not told in advance of Orange Force movements or intentions (as in a real war) and had to respond accordingly.

Also to maximise the training benefit, the rules of engagement initially permitted Blue Force aircraft to fire upon Orange Forces in defence only. It wasn’t until later in the conflict that Blue Force aircraft were able to intercept and shoot down Orange Force aircraft. Another exercise peculiarity was that ‘destroyed’ aircraft, ships or tanks etc would regenerate or come back to life, and rejoin the war at a later stage.

Orangeland aircraft assets comprised: two Elliot Fighters (Nowra based Fleet Support Learjet 35s used to represent F-16 or F-5s), a Converter maritime patrol aircraft (a RAN HS.748 simulating an Exocet armed Fokker F27 Maritime), two C-130 Hercules and a Moose tactical transport (played by a Caribou).

Against this, Blue Force had at its disposal 10 F/A-18s from 75 Squadron, four F-111Cs from 1 Squadron, two RF-111Cs from 6 Squadron, four RAAF and two US Navy P-3C Orions, eight Hercules, seven Caribou, two 707s, two PC-9s and four Macchis from 76 Squadron, five Black Hawks and three Iroquois gunships from 5 Aviation Regiment plus numerous Kiowas and Sea Kings, and Seahawks and Squirrels operating off RAN FFGs.