ADF focuses on water-based training in line with Australia's Defence Strategic Review | ABC News

The Australian Army has undergone a major change to how it trains for conflict, with soldiers spending more time on the water as Australia focuses on the role of Defence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The army's Darwin-based 1st Brigade has moved from concentrating on land-based operations to shallow water operations where troops navigate through beaches and islands.
Brigadier Nicholas Foxall, Commander of the 1st Brigade, said the shift — in line with the recent Defence Strategic Review — was a "big change" that would enable the army to best serve the Indo-Pacific region surrounding Australia.
"We've seen a fundamental change in where our focus is," he said.
"We're moving from land-based operations to maritime-based operations which is a big change in primary task."
Brigadier Foxall said previously the brigade's job was to drive tanks and seize objectives on land, but now they would train using water as the "primary corridors".
"With the increasing contested environment that the world is finding itself in, using the 1st Brigade as Australia's primary interactor [sic] inside the archipelagic region to our north provides a number of really good options for our government," he said.
But Brigadier Foxall said the Australian Defence Force also needed to be able to better provide disaster relief in its neighbouring regions.
"During the recent floods and high-risk weather event last year in East Timor, we weren't able to rapidly deploy to assist," he said.
"This concept would allow us to participate within our region far more readily."
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Gilmore, Commanding Officer of the Darwin-based 5th Battalion, said the change was an opportunity for his soldiers to upskill and work on the water.
"We still are infantry soldiers, however we are just adapting to do this within the environment and the geography we live in to make sure we can best meet the requirements that government have of us as the infantry battalion in the north," he said.
Brigadier Foxall said the army's current strategy was to re-train its existing workforce, but in time there could be more personnel based in the Top End.
"When new vessels become available [and] new services are required as a result, we'll see an increase in those types of people being employed up here," he said.
The change is in line with the Australian Government's Defence Strategic Review which highlights China's military build-up and the importance of the Indo-Pacific as a geo-strategic region.
The review stated the build-up was "occurring without transparency or reassurance to the Indo-Pacific region of China's strategic intent".
"China's assertion of sovereignty over the South China Sea threatens the global rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific in a way that adversely impacted Australia's national interests," the review stated.
John Coyne, head of the Northern Australian Strategic Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the army's move showed there was an increasing focus on the Indo-Pacific.
"Moving on from the global war on terrorism, there's an increasing focus on the Indo-Pacific and there can be no doubt that the Indo-Pacific is a maritime domain," Dr Coyne said.
"Whether you're talking about war fighting or whether you're talking about humanitarian assistance, being able to operate in the littoral environment of the Indo-Pacific is of critical importance."
But Dr Coyne cautioned against viewing the move as a direct response to China's military build-up.
"Certainly, we shouldn't draw any direct conclusions between China's increasing military build-up and this being a specific response to that," he said.

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