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NMCB 4 Participates in Combined Task Force Exercise

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS070601-10
Release Date: 6/1/2007 2:41:00 PM

From Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 Public Affairs

CAMP COVINGTON, Guam (NNS) -- Thirty-one members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4, along with U.S. Army and Marine Corps personnel, arrived at Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Darwin to take part in a Joint Rapid Airfield Construction (JRAC) project.

By completing this project, the U.S. and Australian defense forces will demonstrate that they can construct an airfield for strategic airlift from virgin soil within 30 days in any operational theater, supporting the largest transport aircraft, the C-17 Globe Master.

The technology developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gives both nations the ability to construct an expeditionary airfield, without the need for surveyors and time consuming site layout, traditionally required for projects like this, significantly reducing the time required for construction.

“This will be the first time since 1942 that Australian and U.S. forces have joined together to construct an airfield in Australia,” said JRAC Combined Joint Task Force Commander Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Yeman.

On April 26, 1942, the first battalion of the 43rd General Services Regiment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, began work 10.5 miles south of Katherine, Australia, at an airstrip called Carson’s Field. The airfield was 1,300 meters (14,216 yards) long and designed to handle propeller-driven B-24 Liberator bombers. The airfield was later finished by the RAAF airfield construction squadrons. That field, now named Tindal, is the lynchpin in the defense of Australia’s Northern Territory.

The U.S. Army’s 43rd General Services Regiment and the 808th Aviation Engineering Battalion, in conjunction with RAAF units, constructed seven more airstrips in the Northern Territory, taking between 28 and 53 days for each strip.

The next two weeks will include training on equipment and the use of new technology before going into the outback to start the airfield.