When a contingent of Australian reconnaissance soldiers was preparing to patrol with their Philippine counterparts, they were shocked to see how little the Filipinos carried.
While each Aussie typically had a heavy pack laden with equipment, rations and water, only one man in each Philippine section carried a pack. Mostly containing rice and water.
They headed out with no rations so the Philippine soldiers could show Australians how to get water from cane sugar and coconuts, along with what fruit and animals they could eat. They were then shown how to cook it in a bamboo trunk.
"That was pretty cool considering we're so heavily reliant on rat packs and they will go on patrol and take basically nothing and survive out there," recon section commander Corporal Callum Scott-Mills said.
Recon soldiers from 5th/7th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, were training with recon troops from the Philippine's 4th and 10th Infantry Divisions, at Camp Kibaritan in Mindanao, during May and June.
The groups also shared how they each conduct operations - the Australians work from observation posts, while the Filipinos conduct recon in force for counterinsurgency.
"A platoon goes out and services one single objective, whereas in Australia it's a lot more five-to-six-man patrols," Corporal Scott-Mills said.
"We don't normally go out seeking the enemy. We're there to collect information."
The Australians emphasised that recon objectives could be met while remaining under a certain detection threshold, and this could support territorial defence operations.
'We don't normally go out seeking the enemy. We're there to collect information.'
Corporal Scott-Mills was heartened the Filipinos were happy to consider new ideas, given many had recent fighting experience.
"They took on board the different approach to recon, because it would be easy to fob off some dudes like us who haven't had combat deployments," Corporal Scott-Mills said.
The Australians covered things such as mitigating against enemy drones, thermal and infra-red detection equipment - things not often considered in counterinsurgency, but are important in a conventional conflict.
When the training started, Corporal Scott-Mills was unsure how the language barrier would affect training, but said the groups got closer as time went on.
"It's good when they're receptive to your training and we get really good training back," he said.
"We've got our own visual tracker and combat survival courses but being taught by people who've done it [in] real-time was awesome.
"They were insanely good at operating in the jungle, we weren't amateur, but they were a lot better than us."
Corporal Scott-Mills finished his time in the Philippines wanting to incorporate some of their ideas for less equipment into Australian patrols.
"Philippine patrolling is super fast and they can sustain themselves for a long time," he said.
"And it's got me thinking, are we carrying too much over what we actually need?"
The activity was part of the Joint Australian Training Team - Philippines (JATT-P) program.
In 2025, JATT-P will feature more than 20 training activities and exchanges between the ADF and Philippine armed forces, more than double the activities in 2024.
