By Melissa Buckley, Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (August 8, 2025) — The Australian Army now has soldiers trained to clear the way through minefields following a visit to Fort Leonard Wood, July 28 to Aug. 1, where U.S. Army combat engineers shared their Mine Clearing Line Charge expertise with their allied partners from Down Under.

“A MICLIC is a system used to create a safe path through minefields. The most common type, the M58 MICLIC, uses a 350-foot-long line charge containing explosives,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jordan Dwire, Combat Engineer Heavy Track Course noncommissioned officer in charge. “The rocket launches the line charge over the obstacle, and when detonated, it creates a path.”

Twenty-five Australian soldiers took part in the MICLIC training, which according to Australian Defense Force Col. Ben Shepherd, is the culmination of their training.

The first part of the training is a rotation through the U.S. Army Engineer School’s CEHTC to learn an additional skill set, known to the U.S. Army as the additional skill identifier of B6 Combat Engineer Heavy Track.

B6 skills taught during CEHTC include how to operate the Assault Breaching Vehicle, Joint Assault Bridge and Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge.

“I was the senior instructor when the Australians came through the course. It was nice seeing them again and seeing how their knowledge has grown,” Dwire said. “They have improved a tremendous amount and with them just finishing up their first actual course of our CEHTC equivalent, it just shows how much they have retained and knew about the Abrams (tank) chassis already.”

Shepherd said the Australian soldiers who graduated from Fort Leonard Wood’s heavy track course are now serving as the instructors of the Australian Army’s version of the course at the School of Armor in Puckapunyal, Victoria, which held its first ABV class in June 2025.

This is his first visit to Fort Leonard Wood, but he said the Australian soldiers he brought with him, or sappers as he calls them, have trained on the installation before, when they attended the CEHTC.

Shepherd credits the U.S. Army Engineer School with allowing him to bring the “heavy armor capability into service quite quickly.”

“We got our vehicles in the start of 2025 and after your training we have our first troops ready to execute operations already,” he said. “We are just bringing these platforms into service, but you have more than a decade of experience.

“We are seeking to harness the skills your subject matter experts have and integrate it into our training back in Australia.”

According to Shepherd, the plan is for them to go back to Australia and become MICLIC instructors.

“We will use the MICLICS the same way the Americans use them — breaching minefields and other complex obstacles. That is not a capability we have ever had in the Australian Army before, so this is the leading edge of our heavy armor capability in Australia,” Shepherd said.

When U.S. and Australian forces are given the mission of working together to defeat a common enemy in the future, Shepherd said the relationship built between the warfighters will be the key to their success.

“We know how each other’s platforms operate,” Shepherd said. “Us understanding how your sappers operate and how to use this style of breaching is going to be super important for our two nations in the future.”

Dwire agreed and said the joint training experience has given him complete confidence in his Australian battle buddies.

“After training these individuals for two years I know that their knowledge and expertise is without question. They are professionals just like us and I know at the end of the day they have my back,” Dwire said.

Shepherd said he is thankful for Fort Leonard Wood’s hospitality and world-class training.

“We are super appreciative of the ability to come over here and reengage with the B6 team,” Shepherd said. “We intend to come back to Fort Leonard Wood and do this training for the next couple of years.”

For more photos from this MICLIC training, visit Fort Leonard Wood’s Flickr page, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortleonardwood/albums/72177720328096153.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 80 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains nearly 80,000 military and civilians each year.

Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.

Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.