Australian Army Puts Simulation to Test in Exercise Diamond Dawn

The Australian Army’s 7th Combat Brigade made heavy use of simulation during Exercise Diamond Dawn held in February.

Exercise Diamond Dawn used a hybrid of the Decisive Action Training Environment Caucus and Pacific scenarios, overlaid on the Townsville Field Training Area. In addition to the 7th Combat Brigade, the two week long exercise was supported by the 6th and 17th Brigades and the RAAF. The Command Post exercise was conducted at the Army’s Battle Simulation Centres in the Gallipoli and Kokoda Barracks and 190 personnel took part in the combat training exercises.

“7th Combat Brigade hasn’t been under significant threat in an exercise scenario since Talisman Sabre in 2019,” said Captain Andrew Henderson, who was deeply involved in planning the exercise. “In order to maintain our skill set, we put the 7th Combat Brigade headquarters into a position where it had to execute and then plan concurrently while battle groups were manoeuvring against a near-peer threat.”

The simulation capability used during Ex Diamond Dawn had a lot of potential said Henderson and showed its usefulness not only at the platoon level, but also at the battle group and formation level.

Ex Diamond Dawn also tested the combat engineer’s armour breaching capability, while soldiers from the 1st Regiment flew Tiger Armed Reconnaissance helicopters in the Steel Beast simulation system.

The 7th Combat Brigade will further develop the exercise scenarios used in Ex Diamond Dawn in May and September for Ex Diamond Walk and Ex Diamond Dagger respectively.

Ex Diamond Dagger will also result in the important milestone of integration of the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance vehicle into the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.