Exercise Highball culminates with HIMARS barrage in Western Australia

Photo By Sgt. Ashunteia Smith | Army mariners assigned to the 368th Seaport Operations Company and 331st Transportation Company construct a causeway adjacent to the MV Maj. Bernard F. Fisher off the coast of Bowen, Australia, July 29, 2023. When complete, the causeway will form a floating pier enabling the discharge of vehicles from the Fisher to shore demonstrating the critical capability of Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore during Talisman Sabre. Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States, with multinational participation, advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening relationships and interoperability among key allies and enhancing our collective capabilities to respond to a wide array of potential security concerns. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Ashunteia’ Smith, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade)  

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA

08.01.2023

Story by Sgt. Keaton Habeck 

I Corps

PERTH, Australia – Soldiers from U.S. Army’s Joint Task Force 519 and from the Australian Army’s 13th Brigade have concluded an operational test and development exercise using a U.S. Army M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) at the Lancelin Defence Training Area, Lancelin, Western Australia, August 1, 2023.
Exercise Highball 2023 was a joint U.S. and Australian initiative aimed at developing how the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will employ land-based long-range precision fires. A key enabler of the exercise was the use of combined ADF and JTF 519 targeting capabilities that included air, land, sea and space assets to deliver integrated targeting information to the HIMARS across extended ranges.
The exercise culminated with the live-firing of six Guided Multiple Launch System (GMLRS) rockets at a maritime target, confirming how a HIMARS can be used in the coastal defense role. The rockets destroyed the 10mx6m target at 25 kilometers off the coast in the first barrage. The exercise comes at a time when Australia has ordered 20 HIMARS launchers, and the nation has now announced it will commence the manufacture of HIMARS rockets in cooperation with the U.S. within two years.
“[Exercise] Highball has been a fantastic opportunity for the United States and Australia to work together in Western Australia to build capabilities and interoperability to defend the littoral regions of the continent,” said Col. Andrew Knight, commander of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade.
This is the first time the U.S. Army has conducted HIMARS training with the ADF in Western Australia. Exercises like these continue to bolster the U.S.-Australia alliance and enhance stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It’s a continuation of a long-standing commitment to each other,” said BRIG Brett Chaloner, the 13th Brigade commander, Australian Defence Force. “And indeed, it's an opportunity for us to continue to evolve our collective capability in response to the changing conditions in the region.”
Participating Soldiers were keen to train in new and complex environments that would replicate a potential land-to-sea conflict. The HIMARS fired its six rockets at a target 30 kilometers off the coast of Lancelin, demonstrating the weapons system’s potential.
“When you look at the size of Australia… we're never going to have enough of anyone or anything to achieve all the effects that we need to in terms of holding an adversary at distance and at risk,” Chaloner said. “So, the HIMARS system provides us with both huge mitigation against those risks, and equally a lot of agility in terms of responding to the problems that we might encounter.”
HIMARS has specific capabilities that make them combat effective in Australia and in the Indo-Pacific region.
“The HIMARS system capability is really its ability to target very accurately at long range,” said Lt. Col. Travis Hertlein, the JTF 519 fire support coordinator. “The opportunity there is to increase the distance and lethality that we have in the battle space to the extent that we're able to affect the enemy in such a way that they're much more reactive based upon the fires that they're getting. HIMARS offer that opportunity through that extended range that's able to engage targets.”
Highball 2023 had many intricacies that spanned the entire continent, making this exercise a unique challenge. Transportation, communications, targeting, and command and control came not only from Lancelin, but also from Perth, Rockhampton, Townsville and Canberra entailing movement, coordination, and execution taking place concurrently with exercise Talisman Sabre 2023.
“There's a lot of mobility and logistical requirements,” said Capt. Michael Day, 1-3 Field Artillery Regiment operations officer and lead HIMARS planner for Exercise Highball. “Our support from the ADF has been essential to our successful training of that. Having long range precision fires assets is going to be strategically significant, both across the region and here in Australia.”
Col. Knight said some of these unique challenges became some of the greatest strengths of Exercise Highball.
“The little things that cause us to experiment and cause us to create new solutions to communications problems into other data that comes across in this exercise is paramount to what we will take away and we will incorporate into future operations together,” Knight said.
The ADF announced the purchased 20 HIMARS with supporting equipment and munitions in January this year, and is currently assessing tenders for a land-based long-range mobile anti-maritime strike missile system that will compliment the Australian’s HIMARS capability.
The U.S. and Australia are planning to continue to conduct land-to-sea missile tests in the future.

• Date Taken: 08.01.2023
• Date Posted: 08.02.2023 18:41
• Story ID: 450404
• Location: PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AU