Stratford at war!

Bekara and Alpiria are at war, but before you panic and start looking up these countries in an atlas, rest easy, for this is a fictitious scenario devised for the military exercise under way in Taranaki.

Exercise Kiwi Koru is held every two years, and this time Taranaki has been selected as the location.

Troops will be embedded throughout the district, with lots of military vehicles on the roads around Stratford as the town's aerodrome is a key location for the month-long exercise.

Kiwi Koru is designed to test the agility and adaptability of the army, alongside the Royal New Zealand Air Force and New Zealand's southwest Pacific partners - the United States Marine Corps Pacific and US Army Pacific.

Commander Colonel Nick Gillard of the 1st New Zealand Brigade said the New Zealand Defence Force needed to remain well trained.

Our training calendar is rigorous and designed to ensure we are prepared to deploy when required.

Commander Colonel Nick Gillard

Colonel Gillard says the people of Taranaki have been "generous and welcoming," offering land and facilities to allow hundreds of personnel to conduct the exercise in the area.

"It's very hard for us to conduct these types of activities without community support. We're very grateful as it's essential to increase the capability of our young leaders and test our new equipment at home."

While advance parties have been in the area over the past week, the majority of troops arrived at the start of this week at New Plymouth airport coming by RNZAF C-130 (Hercules), which also brought in light armoured vehicles and a MHOV (medium-heavy operational vehicle), the first time the defence force has delivered a MHOV this way.