Australian Contribution To The 2003 Invasion of Iraq - Forces Committed

Forces Committed

A headquarters staff of about 60 personnel under the command of Brigadier Maurie McNarn.

  • Royal Australian Navy
    • The frigates HMAS Anzac and HMAS Darwin, which were already on-station as part of the Multinational Interception Force enforcing economic sanctions against Iraq before the invasion plan was entered into. Each ship carried a single Seahawk helicopter from 816 Squadron RAN.
    • The transport ship HMAS Kanimbla carrying 350 crew and soldiers, including embarked Australian Army LCM-8 landing craft and an anti-aircraft contingent, a Sea King helicopter from 817 Squadron RAN, and a bomb disposal team. A detachment from the Army's 16th Air Defence Regiment provided point defence to the Kanimbla.
    • Clearance Diving Team Three, which worked alongside divers from several nations to clear Iraqi ports of mines.
  • Royal Australian Air Force
    • No. 75 Squadron, operating 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets together with 250 command, coordination, support and aircrew personnel.
    • Three C-130H Hercules transport aircraft from No. 36 Squadron RAAF and 150 support personnel.
    • Two AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and 150 support personnel (these aircraft may have operated in the electronic intelligence gathering role).
  • Australian Army
    • A 500-strong special forces task group consisting of:
      • Forward Command Element
      • Special Forces Task Group attached to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-West (CJSOTF-W)
        • 1st Squadron Group, Australian Special Air Service Regiment
        • Platoon (+), 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Commando)
        • D Troop, Incident Response Regiment
        • Combat Service Support Group
      • Troop, C Squadron, 5th Aviation Regiment (3 CH-47 Chinook)
      • 2 LCM-8 Landing Craft, 70/71 Troop Water Transport Squadron

Read more about this topic:  Australian Contribution To The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq

Famous quotes containing the words forces and/or committed:

    “We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.... [The organized moneyed people] are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred.... I should like to have it said of my second administration that these forces met their master.”
    —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    “To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked.”
    —Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)