The HNS reconnaissance capability is designed to combat spills of dangerous goods aboard vessels at sea off the Australian coast. When a vessel reports an unknown spill on board, a small team of HAZMAT officers from FRNSW and an AMSA maritime casualty officer can be deployed to the vessel to identify the chemical; and any associated threat. This information is used to help inform decision makers back on land as to the next cause of action.

Australia has signed up to the IMO OPRC-HNS Protocol that obligates Australia to have a response capability at sea for such incidents. Australia is one of the few countries that have a full capability for dealing with such scenarios. This is the third exercise to test Australia’s capability with each exercise increasing in scale. The first exercise was held in 2016 and involved the reconnaissance team boarding the Australian coastal vessel Island Trader off the coast of Port Macquarie. The second involved a simulated spill aboard the Spirit of Tasmania while crossing the Bass Strait.