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| Down Under |
| Major Australian-U.S military exercise given go-ahead |
| 2005-04-12 |
| Around 17,000 Australian and United States troops will take part in a combined military exercise at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland in June. The Australian Defence Department confirmed the details of the major training exercise including thousands of navy, army, air force, marines and special forces at a planning meeting last Friday. Land forces will train primarily in the Shoalwater Bay area near Rockhampton. Maritime exercises will be held off the central Queensland coast in the Coral Sea, while fighter jets and transport aircraft will fly out of Royal Australian Air Bases in Amberley near Ipswich in south-east Queensland and Townsville in the state's far-north. Elements of the exercise are also expected to be conducted in Darwin and Sydney. The planning details put to rest concerns the exercise would be cancelled or scaled back after the boxing day tsunami. The Australian Defence Department says it had to review the exercise because of the level of commitment in Asia. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |