Southern Katipo exercise descends on top of the south

Monday, 16 October 2017

Military vehicles and personnel will be visible in Nelson from Wednesday as the defence force takes part in a massive training exercise.

Exercise Southern Katipo is New Zealand's largest military exercise, held every two years in varying parts of the country.

The 2017 exercise starts this Wednesday around the Marlborough, Kaikoura, Tasman and Buller regions and runs until November 18.

Continuing on from the scenario used for 2015, the area will once again become the troubled Becara region, still suffering from political instability and unrest. New Zealand has been requested to assemble and lead an intervention force comprising a coalition of Pacific Island forum member states.

Soldiers from Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Brunei, Malaysia and Timor Leste will be taking an active part in the exercise alongside New Zealand with small contingents from Australia, Canada, USA, France and Britain also taking part.

The main contingent will arrive at Blenheim Airport on Monday evening in military fixed wing transport aircraft, such as the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C-130H Hercules. 

United States Air Force C-17 Globemasters and Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Hercules will parachute loads onto selected drop zones in the exercise area.

A number of navy ships will be based off the coast between Kaikoura and the Marlborough Sounds as other elements of the contingent arrive by sea over the beach in Okiwi Bay and across the wharf at Picton.

Port Nelson will provide a berth for the HMNZS Canterbury on Wednesday and Friday to unload vehicles and supplies to be taken to the exercise headquarters at Omaka, near Blenheim.

New Zealand Defence Force director of joint exercise planning Lieutenant Colonel Martin Dransfield said there would be large convoys travelling on the roads between Nelson and Omaka until Friday.

A further contingent of more than 100 Defence Force vehicles, army trucks and larger vehicles, will be moved from Burnham Military Camp, south of Christchurch to Omaka Air Base in Blenheim between Wednesday and Friday.

'In terms of the general exercise, it's all go now – we've got the first elements arriving tonight into Blenheim and the forces will build up to 2000 in the next five to seven days,' he said.

Once the contingent has established itself in various locations throughout Marlborough, regular day and night patrols will be conducted by soldiers either on foot or in the vehicles.

This year a new extremist political party has grown in strength between the badlands of Greymouth and Reefton. A pro-Wesso militia group – the Westportian Freedom Army (WFA) – has emerged to force change for the Wesso people and now occupies the area.

Influenced by radical ethnic politics. The Wessos have driven large numbers of ethnic Havos from Reefton as they arrived.

Havelock is the capital of the 'Havo' homeland. Displaced Havo families have been migrating to the region for the last six months in the wake of the ethnic violence building in the West. 

Kaikoura's recent earthquake history will be utilised, with it becoming a border community requiring assistance with humanitarian efforts and security.

The SK17 exercise will also involve more than 120 volunteers from the local communities who will play the roles as friendly and hostile players, including scout groups and their families and amateur drama groups.

The involvement of personnel from 12 different nations, local communities and 15 non-government organisations, Police, Customs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had created 'a big regional buzz', Dransfield said.

'It's all of NZ and our closest allies getting involved – we basically get everything out of the shed that would not be already deployed which then comes under a combined joint task force headquarters.'

Dransfield said training exercises like SK17 had proved invaluable during recent disaster management situations including Kaikoura, Fiji and Vanuatu

'This is something we need to be ready for and more importantly work together with our allies and friends on a regular basis,' he said.

'When we went to Fiji in 2016 it was just seamless because we'd worked with all these intel organisations in SK15, so it's basically setting us up for success.'