The Australian Army, the United States Army and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) demonstrated a new capability transporting High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) as part of Exercise Kenney Strikes Back, a USAF-led drill in Australia in December 2025.
Australian HIMARS were loaded onto USAF C-17 Globemaster IIIs operated by the 62nd Airlift Wing. Troops flew the HIMARS, along with Australian Army Bushmaster vehicles and U.S. Army MRZR all-terrain vehicles, from Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Amberley to northern Queensland and southern New South Wales before rapidly establishing communications, simulating a fire mission and reloading onto the C-17s for a quick exit.
After deploying to RAAF Base Scherger and Royal Australian Navy air station HMAS Albatross, troops established forward positions to execute targets of opportunity with the launchers, denying avenues of approach for potential adversaries.
“Working with our American counterparts is always a rewarding activity. They come with a lot of experience, which is helpful for us as we’re a new unit and we still have a lot to learn,” said Australian Army Warrant Officer Class Two Mick Krek, battery sergeant major of the 14 Regiment’s 54th Siege Battery.
“At the same time, the USAF also learns a lot from the Australian call signs, and I feel our training has postured us perfectly to execute missions such as this to deny avenues of approach to the north,” he said.
The U.S. Army’s 17th Field Artillery Battery worked alongside the Australian Army. Battery commander Capt. Daniel Schell said the learning opportunities were mutual and that it was rewarding to demonstrate proof of concept for combined HIMARS rapid infiltration missions.
“We were able to receive a mission during our flight window and then store that information,” Schell said. “We hit the ground running and moved over to the firing point, then transferred the information from U.S. forces to Australian forces, who then prosecuted the target.
“One of the great things about this exercise has been the chance to see some of the similarities we have with Australian forces, share lessons learned and work through some of the new things that we’re doing as part of coalition and joint training,” he said.
Operation Kenney Strikes Back is designed to rehearse and validate the 62nd Airlift Wing’s ability to rapidly generate forces, project power and develop combat airlift capabilities with allied and partner forces in the Indo-Pacific. More than 300 personnel participated.
“Working with our Australian counterparts was another desired learning objective, just really finding better ways to partner with them,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bradley Wills, 4th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron commander for the exercise. “We worked with the Australian Army to practice with loading and unloading their HIMARS, as well as the Royal Australian Air Force to help work through some of the airspace we were in.
“There was a lot of partnership building,” he said. “We worked some contingency plans, and developed tactics, techniques, and procedures on the fly. Having all those people together and talking about it, a lot of innovation and proficiency happened.”
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