The First Royal Pacific Islands regiment (1RPIR), of the PNG Defence Force at Port Moresby’s Taurama Barracks, today closed the 2017 ‘Exercise Pukpuk’.
The battalion hosted the 3rd Combat Engineers Regiment for the Exercise Pukpuk 2017.
Commanding Officer for the 1RPIR, Lieutenant Colonel Boniface Aruma, explained that Exercise Pukpuk is an annual exercise between the Australian and PNG Defence Forces.
The exercise sees engineers from the ADF deployed to various PNGDF establishments to engage in infrastructure development and skills training.
Lieutenant Colonel Aruma highlighted to media personnel the number of new developments at the Taurama Barracks, which include the construction of the new Urban Operations Training Facility, reconstruction of the old Regimental Aid Post, and constructions of company training sheds, the 120 men transit camp and vehicle sheds.
“With this capability now we can have a 120-man, one company come over to stay within the barracks and this can translate into enormous training value for the local personnel.
“It exposes our soldiers to operate shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers from other countries.
“That is what we need, to expose our men and have them trained by other forces who have wider experiences in urban operations and high security operations around the world.”
Under the joint exercise, specialised trainings include the basic search and combat medic. These new development and trainings are relevant at this time of the year when the First Battalion is preparing for security operations for APEC 2018.
“Apart from that the exercise has delivered to us a Regimental Aid Post and a Combat Medic course that has seen 18 personnel go through training to be a certified combat medic.
“This training is to allow the medical staff the training to be able to save lives in the battle field or sharp end.”
Meantime, Aruma says that the exercise was more than just about building infrastructure but also about adding value to the training of PNGDF personnel beyond APEC 2018.