Talisman Saber airpower offers command success

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kerry Jackson
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --  The 13th Air Force here was the nerve center for airpower during Talisman Saber 2009, a bilateral command post and field-training exercise between U.S. and Australian forces that concluded July 25. 

The two-week exercise, held jointly by U.S. Pacific Command and the Australian Defence Force, focused on crisis-action planning and execution of contingency response operations. It was designed to maintain a high level of interoperability between U.S. and Australian force. 

Talisman Saber 2009 included more than 10,000 Australian land and naval forces and 20,000 U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps servicemembers training in both Australia and the United States. 

"The partnership we share with our Australian allies extend more than 200 years and includes every major conflict," said Brig. Gen. Doug Owens, vice commander of the 13th Air Force and the exercise's Combined Forces Air Component Commander. "Talisman Saber helps us train and integrate our forces for tomorrow's fight." 

The field-training exercise portion of Talisman Saber 2009 was concentrated in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area near Rockhampton in Central Queensland, as well as the Townsville Field Training Area near Townsville, Australia, where U.S. and Australian forces conducted land, sea and air training. 

"It was a large, complex and challenging exercise," said Australian Wing Commander Jason Lind, the 613th Air and Space Operations Center deputy chief of the Combat Operations Division during Talisman Saber 2009. 

"Exercising joint and combined interoperability over great distances was always going to be difficult and the challenges did not stop," Wing Command Ling said. "I believe it stretched many personnel, which is what exercising is all about." 

The exercise relied heavily on the far reaching capacity of the 613th AOC here to conduct the bilateral command post portion of the exercise. The 613th AOC is a FALCONER weapons system, armed with five divisions: Strategy; Combat Operations; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Air Mobility. As a weapon system, the 613th AOC developed strategy plans and control processes necessary to employ air, space and information forces to achieve desired effects during Talisman Saber 2009. 

"The AOC is a very important cog in the wheel of Talisman Saber 2009," said Wing Commander Lind. "I believe the goal of maintaining interoperability between U.S. and Australian forces was met in the AOC--we worked very well together due to our similar systems, tactics, techniques and procedures, and our cultural backgrounds. On a social level, I found my U.S. colleagues to be very friendly and accommodating in every way." 

Talisman Saber is held biannually across six locations in northern and central Australia, the Coral Sea, and in Honolulu, Denver, and Suffolk, Va.