I can only imagine that Australia would be heaven for any Military force because of the vast amounts of free land and varried terrain (especially the deserts!) that are available for training.
Does Australia "lease" or allow foreign allied units to come and train in its national training centers?

yup, you betcha!
arnhem land in NT is often used

some of the joint training exercises i can remember off the top of my head (nick will prolly know them all!)

Tandem thrust in2001 involved aussies and americans

wow iv got a worse memory than i thought.
neways i know that they use schoalwater bay and other areas in the top end for the exercises, lots of nice terrain up there

I was thinking it would be superb to train South Korean foreign deployment specific units there.
I hope to use my multi-lingual skills to increase my chances of being picked for such units when I go join in a few months.

well if you like it hot, arnhem is the place to train!!!!
from what i have heard!!

You're talking to a guy who ran cross country and track in Jakarta. How much worse could it get?

i dont know but i imagine that in Nepal where they recruit the Gurkhas from is mean to be hardcore country to live in!

The challenge there would be high altitude. But really when you step into a hot and humid environment, it just sucks the life right out of you. But on the other hand, in terms of conditioning, high altitutde is superb. It probably explains why Gurkhas are excellent runners.

You're talking to a guy who ran cross country and track in Jakarta. How much worse could it get?

How about 45 degrees centigrade with zero humidity. That sucks. We had a bloke from 2cav die of heat exhaustion at the Mt. Bundy range after coming back from a tour of duty in Iraq, so that says something about the temp it can get to here.

I can only imagine that Australia would be heaven for any Military force because of the vast amounts of free land and varried terrain (especially the deserts!) that are available for training.
Does Australia "lease" or allow foreign allied units to come and train in its national training centers?

So much free land for military exercises. When you think about the fact we have cattle stations the size of Belgium, it'd give you an idea of how much free land there is, and there is a huge range of landscape. Kanungra= Jungle, Shoalwater=Coastal, El Alemain= Desert, Mt Bundy= Desert.. hmm, plus alpine snow in the New South Wales high country, sub-arctic conditions in our outer southern islands, can't be bothered thinking of anymore training grounds right now.

We do lots of joint exercises with other nations (new zealand, britain, indonesia, usa, canada, japan, malaysia for example). 2001 Exercise Tandem Thrust in Shoalwater bay we hoasted 25,000 US servicemen in wargames. We've got another one in 2005, I can't wait.

SAS is what they are normally called, SASR just means Special Air Service Regiment. They were based on the British SAS, but have diversified totally, they now can't really be compared to the British SAS at all because they are so diverse. Our SAS are a jack of all trades, they can do everything from clearance diving to HALO jumps to deep enemy country recon to counter terrorism.

Anyway, some more pics.

ASLAV in Baghdad with the new remote weapons station that includes Browning .50 cal, 40mm automatic grenade launcher, Javelin missile system and laser range finder.




Firing on the Puckapunyal Range


Demonstration of NVG equipment


Coming ashore during Tandem Thrust in Shoalwater Bay


Various different configurations of the AUG F88 Steyr including the Cavalry carbine model


Army sniper in a "Yowie Suit"


More of the Commando TAG group


Major General Cosgrove comes ashore after the seaborne assault to secure the beach head in East Timor


SASR soldier in Afghanistan, being special forces we let them get away with being a bunch of scruffs.



Australian Army Aviation in East Timor (East Timor can be a bit of a sore point for some Aussie soldiers, since we were the ones who went in and did all the fighting, and now a lot of other nations have come and joined the rehab work and try and make it look like they are to thank for saving the country).


Members of the Royal Australian Armoured Corp on parade


Bushmaster IMV (infantry mobility vehicle). Fully offroad 4x4 capable truck/armoured vehicle. Fully capable armour, V shaped mine deflecting armoured bottom, MAG-58 GPMG 7.62mm rooftop mounted, fully NBC proof, ventilated and air conditioned- a godsend in the Aussie outback)

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

The challenge there would be high altitude. But really when you step into a hot and humid environment, it just sucks the life right out of you. But on the other hand, in terms of conditioning, high altitutde is superb. It probably explains why Gurkhas are excellent runners.

I was on a cadet training exercise last year at catterick and there was loads of gurkhas there doing a 25km run with bergens...whilst having to navigate the route, and it was all off road

I heard a rumour that if they draw their knife in combat, they have to draw blood....and if they dont get it from an enemy they have to get it from themselfs

I heard a rumour that if they draw their knife in combat, they have to draw blood....and if they dont get it from an enemy they have to get it from themselfs

It's true, they have to cut themselves everytime they draw their "Kukri",

but anyway, this is