'Firsts' abound in latest Talisman Sabre joint military drills
This was particularly the case in this year's Exercise Talisman Sabre, as the drills that began July 13 and wrap up Monday saw over 80 "firsts" in which participants either tested new systems or performed certain combined activities for the first time, the exercise's director, Australian Army Brig. Damian Hill, told The Japan Times.
Held across Australia, and for the first time overseas in Papua New Guinea, this year's iteration of the exercise was the largest ever, with six new countries — India, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — participating for the first time.
The large-scale drills saw more than 40,000 personnel train together across five domains — sea, land, air, space and cyberspace — in a flurry of maneuvers that included live-fire and field training activities, amphibious landings as well as air combat and maritime operations. Mobile long-range strike systems featured prominently as the U.S. and its allies demonstrated their ability to hit maritime targets from land-based launchers.
'The crux of Talisman Sabre is that it's a warfighting exercise,' said Hill.
'We practice multinational, joint warfighting,' he said, adding that this sends a strategic message that 'we are really serious about collective security in the Indo-Pacific.'
The activities also help strengthen ties between allies and partners, while providing opportunities to identify capability gaps, innovate and enhance what he described as 'human, technical and procedural interoperability.'
'When you work along with other nations, including their technologies and capabilities, you need to understand their tactics, techniques and standard operating procedures,' Hill said.
This can range from discussing how a country would undertake certain military operations all the way to how to make each other's communication systems talk to each other.
'We don't want to have to work out each other's nuances in a time of need,' Hill said. 'We want to understand them immediately and be able to solve any issues as soon as they emerge.'
One way of doing this is by rehearsing joint and integrated operations.
This included three firsts: Australia's inaugural launch of a U.S.-made, 500-kilometer-range Precision Strike Missile from a HIMARS launcher; the first U.S. firing of a Mid-Range Capability missile west of the International Date Line; and the first time Australia directly assisted Japan in launching Type-12 anti-ship missiles
Referring to the latter, Hill said this year's Type-12 test-firing was 'much more complex' than that conducted by the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) in 2023, with the standoff missiles simultaneously hitting an unmanned target at sea, despite having been fired with different trajectories.
'Australia had maritime helicopters providing a Link-16 tactical picture to assist the Japanese radar systems track the target,' he said.
'We could also provide some telemetry feedback to the JGSDF to advance our interoperability and understanding of how our systems might work together in the future.'
Australian Army Brig. Damian Hill, director of thie summer's Exercise Talisman Sabre, attends the drills' opening ceremony onboard the HMAS Adelaide in Sydney on July 12. |
AUSTRALIA DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Overall, Hill said, the Self-Defense Forces brought not only 1,500 personnel to Talisman Sabre — about 200 more than last time — but also 'a level of sophistication not seen before' at the biennial exercise.
Another first at Talisman Sabre included a combined, joint live-firing of the HIMARS weapon by Singapore, the U.S. and Australia.
Although practicing on HIMARS is not new, the drill was significant as it involved multiple platforms from three different countries firing simultaneously on the same target using an interoperable system. South Korea and Japan also took part using the K239 Chunmoo and Type-03 missile systems, respectively.
While Hill stressed that Talisman Sabre is not aimed at any specific country and that each of the participants aims to send out its 'own strategic messaging,' several of the missile systems tested have long been touted as being potentially critical in any emergency over Taiwan.
From the Pentagon's perspective, these often interoperable ground-based missile systems can be used to hold maritime targets at risk — a key part of the U.S. strategy for countering China's own regional military strategy.
But this year's iteration was about much more than just firing and experimenting with missile systems.
It also saw Britain's Prince of Wales aircraft carrier and the U.S. Air Force's RC-135W Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft take part for the first time. Another first was the creation of a multinational information operations center that grouped 12 participating nations, including Japan.
Talisman Sabre also served as a technological test bed, Hill said, with unmanned systems of all types playing critical roles.
'Instead of running separate trials, we used the exercise to test new concepts, ideas and put these capabilities in the hands of our troops, as they are the best test beds any modernizer will ever get,' he said, adding that a total of 42 experiments were conducted by the U.S., Australia and Japan alone, stretching over several domains.
The ability to communicate with underwater autonomous systems was the focus of one trial that Japan conducted with the U.S., Australia and Britain — members of the AUKUS partnership — on the sidelines of the exercise. The move was linked to AUKUS's Pillar II, which centers around developing and sharing advanced capabilities.
Japan's role in Talisman Sabre has come a long way since it began taking part as an observer in 2007.
With a reciprocal access agreement between Tokyo and Canberra now in place, Hill said he hopes the SDF, which also took part in several amphibious drills, can come out in even larger numbers in 2027 and play a greater role in amphibious, logistics, cyber and aerial operations.
'We're hoping they can join with a force of maybe up to 2,000,' he said, adding that Japan could also contribute greatly to medical interoperability.
'Based on what we did this year, that ability to advance cross-accreditation of their medical capabilities is really powerful for interoperability.'
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