JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (August 29, 2025)– During Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Soldiers from the 922nd Contracting Battalion’s Forward Contracting Element successfully provided contracting support across five geographic locations within the Talisman Sabre Joint Operations area including Darwin, Brisbane, Townsville, Rockhampton and Sydney, Australia from May 28 to August 11, 2025.
Based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, 922nd CBn is a subordinate unit to the 419th Contracting Support Brigade under the Mission and Installation Contracting Command, headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Hosted annually by the Australian Defence Force, or ADF, Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States, with multinational participation, advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening relationships, ensuring interoperability among key allies and enhancing participants’ capabilities to respond to a wide array of potential security concerns in the region. The biennial military exercise is designed to train military forces from both nations to plan and conduct combined task force operations and improve their interoperability and combat readiness.
MICC’s team of six contracting professionals who deployed to Australia in support of this major exercise enabled critical sustainment capabilities including communications, transportation and port operations, directly supporting the operational effectiveness of over 15,000 U.S. personnel. Their efforts ensured seamless integration with joint and multinational forces, enhancing mission readiness and logistical coordination throughout the exercise.
Lt. Col. Randalle Carter, the 922nd battalion commander, served as the Talisman Sabre 2025 FCE team lead. The full MICC team included Maj. Brittney Jackson, Sgt. 1st Class Alicia McCollough, Sgt. 1st Class Fernando Ramirez, Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Warren and Staff Sgt. John Ayres.
“Our team represents the very best in contracting excellence, delivering seamless support to the Warfighter, our mission partners and allies,” Carter said. “Each member was hand-selected for their expertise and both tactical and technical proficiency, ensuring we arrived in-country fully prepared to support U.S. and Australian forces without missing a beat.”
Upon arrival for the TS25 exercise the contracting team was quickly integrated into the Combined Joint Theater Support Component, or CJTSC, Military Logistics Support Operations cell, an international team of U.S. ADF Soldiers overseeing logistics operations for the exercise. The group hosted weekly synchronization meetings with partner teams located at Darwin, Townsville and Brisbane to ensure effective, coordinated and efficient delivery of uninterrupted contracting support throughout the exercise.
“This weekly synch was critical in the coordination and synchronization efforts to enable lines of effort for the sustainment support required to successfully execute our mission,” Carter said. “We were also able to set realistic and accurate requirements for the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, ensuring critical contracting and finance support was set for each stage of the TS25 mission.” The ACA with Austria allows for contracting under the terms of the agreement and facilitates the exchange of logistics support, supplies and services between the U.S. and Australia, allowing for the possibility of contracting solutions to be delivered at a specific point of need.
“As the lead service for all U.S. contracting support, we ensured we were quickly postured to meet the sustainment needs identified for TS25 early on, while simultaneously preparing for unexpected emerging requirements to allow for timely solutions that prevent any gaps in sustainment for the mission,” Carter said.
The team’s primary objective during the first two weeks of their deployment was to provide support to port operations for units performing Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration. Successful RSOI includes receiving and clearing personnel through the port, organizing the equipment and units for onward movement to their final operational locations and ensuring the forces are fully integrated into the host country.
“Our RSOI efforts were critical in ensuring all vehicles, containers and oversized equipment in support of Talisman Sabre 2025 were properly downloaded and transferred to the appropriate destination in preparation for exercise execution,” Carter explained.
The contracting professionals also conducted multi-region key leader engagements to establish a shared understanding of process, discuss roles and responsibilities and prevent unauthorized commitments that could prove costly to U.S. and Australia. Carter said that one of the most notable missions her team supported occurred on July 14 when the 11th Airborne Division from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson conducted a historic airdrop into Australia.
“The 11th Airborne Division completed a 10-hour flight aboard eight C-17s with 367 paratroopers and equipment,” Carter recalled. “In part due to our support, for the first time, all gear and personnel underwent offshore pre-inspection and clearance—critical due to Australia’s strict biosecurity and border controls.” She said her team was able to establish pre-clearance for the vital equipment due to the superior coordination between the U.S. logistics leads and the contracted custom’s broker. The MICC team persuaded the customs broker to pre-log all entries into the Integrated Cargo System and worked with Australian Border Force, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and USDA-trained inspectors to expedite the process.
“We were so proud of this effort because it eliminated the need for on-ground inspections and enabled immediate mission execution upon arrival,” Carter said. Following the jump, she, Jackson and Chief Warrant Officer Four Ariel Rodriguez from the 8th Theater Support Command, provided oversight of the airland inspection at Royal Australian Airfield Amberley for non-jump personnel, including pilots, jumpmasters and maintainers.
“Our participation in Talisman Sabre 2025 validated new approaches we are bringing to joint logistics and biosecurity compliance, enabling seamless force projection and uninterrupted participation in the exercise,” Carter said of the success of the deployment. “Our mission served as a successful proof of principle for future contingency operations, requiring rapid deployment and streamlined customs processing, setting a precedent for more agile and responsive joint force integration in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Carter’s team redeployed from Australia at the beginning of August. In hindsight of the Talisman Sabre 2025 mission through after action reviews, her team believes that key takeaways have been identified that will enhance future efforts and improve operational contracting support for MICC’s Support of Talisman Sabre 2027 and beyond. Some lessons learned include even earlier integration and planning with contracting counterparts, strengthening U.S. and ADF contracting synergy, improved scalability of contracting support, enhanced port and transportation coordination, and full integration of digital contract management tools throughout all phases of contraction operations.
“As part of the Army Transformation Initiative, MICC is working to streamline our cradle-to-grave and contingency contracting processes to ensure flexible, scalable, efficient, and innovative delivery of contracting solutions to the U.S. Army Warfighter and our supported partners,” Carter said.
About the MICC
Headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Mission and Installation Contracting Command consists of about 1,500 military and civilian members who are responsible for contracting goods and services in support of Soldiers as well as readying trained contracting units for the operating force and contingency environment when called upon. As part of its mission, MICC contracts are vital in feeding more than 200,000 Soldiers every day, providing many daily base operations support services at installations, facilitating training in the preparation of more than 100,000 conventional force members annually, training more than 500,000 students each year, and maintaining more than 14.4 million acres of land and 170,000 structures.
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