The U.S. and Australia Are Practicing Long-Range Island Hopping Tactics

 

Exercise Talisman Sabre, the Australian-US led exercise with 17 other participating nations, has concluded in Northern Australia and the Timor Sea.

The highlights of the training, which involved 40,000 troops, included live firings of two newly introduced long-range missile systems. Australia live-fired its M142 high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) with precision strike missiles for the first time. In another first, the United States’ Indo-Pacific Long Range Fires Battalion conducted the first field firing of the new Typhon (Strategic Mid-Range Fires system, or SMRF) land-based SM-6 missile launcher, engaging a moving maritime target.

Large-scale beach amphibious opposed landings with air and naval support were conducted at two locations along the Queensland coast, with US marines and Australian forces, with troops from Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and the United Kingdom. A battalion-sized force from the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, with additional French and German paratroopers, conducted a long-range seizure of an airfield after a 15-hour flight with mid-air refueling. US Marines from the Marine Rotational Force Darwin conducted a simulated island-hopping operation across Northern Australia, covering similar distances as would be encountered in the First Island Chain.

Troops of the 11th Airborne Division and international partners conduct a long-range jump exercise, Talisman Sabre 2025 (U.S. Army)

The Exercise Talisman Sabre directors did not specify against whom the simulated combat operations were conducted. But key features which might give a clue about the potential adversary were operations exercised at long range, opposed amphibious landings, and the integration of allies into a joint force operational structure.

The UK Carrier Strike Group (CSG) led by HMS Prince of Wales (R09) is now headed northwards and is exercising with the Indonesian Navy in the Banda Sea, with onboard Royal Air Force F-35s flying ahead to conduct air exercises in South Korea. The CSG has been joined by the Australian Hobart Class air defense destroyer HMAS Brisbane (DDG-41), replacing the Canadian Halifax Class frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec (F332).