Australian SOF: Exercise Iron Moon

The Australian military wrapped up a large scale training exercise dubbed Iron Moon in late September which saw a widespread use of Special Operations Forces and capabilities.  The training scenarios included training jumps, ship seizures, and recovery operations more commonly known to the public as hostage rescue.

Using the waters off the coast of North West Australia as a training area, various maritime terrorism scenarios were trained for.  These type of rehearsals are critically important in case of a real attack.  Not only must the Australian troops be well rehearsed but the various military and law enforcement agencies involved must have a pre-existing relationship for everything to flow smoothly in a real emergency.  

Iron Moon 2013 again demonstrates that foreign Special Operations Forces are able to work closely along side each other but also may be reflective of the anticipated “strategic pivot” away from the Middle East and towards the Pacific Rim.  For the time being this pivot is more imaginary than anything as the West continues to be bogged down with security concerns in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.