The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has joined 18 other nations for a large French-led multinational training exercise scenario of a hypothetical cyclone striking the islands of Wallis & Futuna.
Exercise Croix Du Sud was based in New Caledonia, about 1900km southwest of Wallis & Futuna, and involved about 2000 personnel.
New Zealand Army Captain Zoe Williamson and a small number of Kiwi staff officers bolstered the exercise headquarters.
“This has been a great opportunity allowing us to work with our partner nations in a likely humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) scenario, developing relationships and an understanding of how we work individually but are able to come together as a whole,” she said.
Exercise Croix Du Sud also provided the opportunity for two NZDF officers to deploy with the Pacific Response Group (PRG), a new multinational support group consisting of personnel from Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, France, Australia, and New Zealand with Chile in support.
The PRG was established in 2024 by recommendation of the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting to address the need for pan-Pacific HADR cooperation.
The Royal New Zealand Navy’s Lieutenant Commander Nikita Lawson said the Pacific Response Group was a short-notice deployable team with strong planning skills designed to assist civilian authorities and other organisations in any response to a disaster.
“The PRG deployed a small team forward to Wallis & Futuna to assess the situation on the ground, determine where military assistance was required and what humanitarian assistance was needed,” she said.
The PRG command team remained in New Caledonia to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian assistance and critical capabilities.
“Information, assessments and the ‘ground truth’ provided by our PRG team were invaluable at shaping the HADR response plans formed by the wider exercise headquarters,” Lieutenant Commander Lawson said.
The two-week exercise ended earlier this month.
