Indo-Pacific Endeavor’22 & Lesson on Leadership
Indo-Pacific Endeavour (IPE) is an annual military-diplomatic initiative undertaken by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) since 2017. A joint task force comprising all three components of ADF — Land, Air, and Naval- visits over 13 countries across Indo-Pacific Region. This is a mammoth exercise with a whole of government approach by the Australian government. From diplomatic events, and military academic seminars to military exercises, the engagement is massive in its scale. IPE 2022 is led by HMAS Adelaide, a Canberra-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) with a displacement of 27,500 tonnes, comparable to erstwhile INS Viraat.
In this edition of IPE, the Australian DoD decided to showcase and facilitate meetings between Australian Defence companies and the stakeholders within India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem. Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor was invited for that purpose. Most probably, we were the only defence corridor folks there.
However, there was an incident that gave lessons on leadership and humility. One of the exhibitors was unable to reach India due to a visa issue. He was stuck in Singapore. Upon his request, the Commander of IPE 2022 took the responsibility of explaining and coordinating the business meeting, despite being the leader of the Joint Task Force.
Commodore Mal Wise is a flag-rank officer of the Royal Australian Navy and Commander of the IPE Fleet. The fleet comprises 5 Ships, 11 helicopters, and 1,800 personnel from Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Airforce and Royal Australian Army. Despite his position and responsibilities, he took the initiative to support an MSME in his area of responsibility.
