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Spc. Mitchell Ternay/4th Bde., 2nd Inf. Div. Public Affairs
Spc. Mitchell Ternay
Staff Sgt. James Baxter explains how to safely take the barrel off of a M-240B machine gun to Australian Defence Force machine gun teams at Shoalwater Bay Training Area during Talisman Sabre 2011 July 9. TS11 is a biennial combined training exercise designed to train Australian and U.S. forces in planning and conducting combined task force operations to improve Australian Defence Force/U.S. combat readiness and interoperability. It reflects the closeness of the alliance and the strength and flexibility of the ongoing military-military relationship.
SHOALWATER BAY TRAINING AREA, Queensland, Australia — With the two machine guns aimed, demonstrators from 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Army, engaged their target, as U.S. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, observed.
“Gun one ready!”
“Gun two ready”
“Section ready!”
The U.S. Soldiers trained with soldiers from the 7th RAR on their machine gun systems and tactics July 10, during Talisman Sabre 2011, a joint, combined biennial training exercise.
Through a flurry of commands yelled back and forth between gunners and the fire team leader, the Australian soldiers demonstrated setting up their weapons systems and the different aiming techniques used to engage the enemy.
During the demonstration, Soldiers like Spc. Ulysses Vasquez from 1st Platoon, C Company, 2-23 Inf., immediately noticed differences between how U.S. and Australian soldiers use this type of weapon.
“For them, it seems like more of an area target weapon. It seems really accurate, and there is a lot of math involved, but it looks like there isn’t much of a mobility technique, which is what we have,” Vasquez said.
The Australian gun teams establish a grid system so they can accurately identify the distance and location of enemy targets and friendly forces maximizing effectiveness, while preventing friendly fire, Vazquez said.
They also use a complex sight system with their Fabrique National MAG-58 machine gun to zero the weapon, as well as make sure they’re parallel with other gunners in their element.
Vazquez went on to explain how the Australians zero their weapon.
“They don’t fire one round (to zero). They gut out their weapon and put their sights inside their weapon and just align the sight to their barrel, unlike us, where we have to shoot to zero.”
For Australian Defence Force Cpl. Adam Revett, a fire team leader, demonstrations like this are a typical training tool for his soldiers.
“Its pretty much what we do most of the time,” Revett said. “We give instruction to our lads in a pretty similar form.”
Next, the U.S. Soldiers ran through a step-by-step demonstration of how they engage the enemy using the M-240B machine gun.
Training like this allows units to learn from each other, incorporating each other’s methods to fine tune how they operate, Revett said.
“When we do work together on operations, we do have a greater understanding of how you guys operate and what capabilities you guys bring to the party,” he said.
For U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Randolph, joint training like this presents an unique opportunity to learn different tactics from allied forces.
“With them being our strongest allies ... it’s really important that we understand each other,” Randolph said, “These guys are a very professional army — very well trained soldiers. They’re going to learn a lot from us, and we’re definitely going to take a lot from them.”