Australia — Minister meets troops preparing for deployment to Afghanistan

Min­is­ter for Defence Materiel Jason Clare has met with Aus­tralian sol­diers under­tak­ing their final train­ing before their deploy­ment to Afghanistan ear­ly next year.

Sol­diers from Men­tor­ing Task Force Four (MTF‑4) are under­tak­ing their Mis­sion Rehearsal Exer­cise at the Wide Bay Train­ing Area in Queensland. 

Mr Clare met with the sol­diers and was briefed on their train­ing and equipment. 

This Mis­sion Rehearsal Exer­cise is the final and most real­is­tic part of the train­ing Aus­tralian sol­diers under­take before they are deployed to Afghanistan. 

“It is designed to pre­pare sol­diers for what they might face in Afghanistan,” Mr Clare said. 

“The train­ing area includes a repli­ca Afghan vil­lage and involves Afghan-speak­ing peo­ple train­ing with them to make the expe­ri­ence as real­is­tic as possible.” 

This is the sec­ond time Min­is­ter Clare has met with sol­diers from MTF‑4.

In Sep­tem­ber he met with MTF‑4 sol­diers at Enog­gera Bar­racks in Bris­bane and was briefed on kit­ting arrange­ments and deploy­ment preparations. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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