Amphibious Exercise to depart Canterbury

Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship HMAS MANOORA will be in Cantabrian waters from 8 May as she gears up to provide assistance to a combined military exercise with the New Zealand Defence Force.

The RAN ship is an amphibious sealift vessel - meaning it can offload vehicles, troops and supplies to shore using landing craft without berthing at a port. It is berthing at Lyttelton Port from the 9th of May before departing to participate in a training exercise with the New Zealand Defence Force.

HMAS MANOORA is the sole naval asset in the Exercise named “Joint Kiwi” which will see NZ Army Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV) transported and offloaded by the amphibious sealift capacity in Hawke’s Bay.

The LAV’s are from Queen Alexandra Mounted Rifles Group based at Burnham Army Camp in Christchurch. QAMR are participating in land-based manoeuvres in Canterbury where they will then be transported by MANOORA to the Hawke’s Bay to continue their activities.

Exercise Joint Kiwi runs from 15 May to 17 May off the coast of Napier before returning to Lyttelton to offload QAMR assets.