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Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways

TOWNSVILLE, Australia — U.S. paratroopers made the most dramatic entrance possible to Australia during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. Flying 14.5 hours nonstop from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, they parachuted from the night sky into the Australian countryside on July 14.

“We landed right on the X,” Col. Brian Weightman, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division, told Defense News during an interview in Townsville.

The commander said he was the first to jump onto the drop zone.

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In such a parachute operation, casualties of up to 10% are anticipated, he explained.

“We’re very comfortable with that if we land and 90% of the force is able to continue on,” Weightman said.

Luckily, this nighttime airdrop resulted in only three minor injuries, one of which was caused by a midair parachute entanglement in the dark.

Their 6,800-mile flight was only the beginning of the unit’s simulated joint forcible entry operation. After landing, the paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Regiment – nickname “Three Geronimo” – proceeded to march another 30-plus miles to seize an urban objective located near Townsville in northern Queensland.

Col. Brian Weightman, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division, is pictured at the Talisman Sabre exercise in Townsville, Australia, in July 2025. (Gordon Arthur/staff)

“To be able to do that with real violence and at speed is really impressive, and I think it should scare adversaries,” the commander said.

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Six C-17A Globemaster III aircraft – four from the U.S. Air Force and two from Australia – transported 323 American and a dozen German paratroopers on the intercontinental flight, while French troops joined the sky train upon their arrival Down Under. The C-17s also dropped heavy equipment such as HMMWVs.

Technological gains

Weightman relayed how he enjoyed continuous communications to higher headquarters with voice, data and video from his aircraft. This high bandwidth is a big deal, as it “gives you a lot better situational awareness and a lot better understanding of what’s going on. You’re able to really paint a much better picture of the enemy.”

Furthermore, “To be able to directly deliver an infantry battalion with its command that is situationally aware and physically optimized onto a drop zone 7,000 miles away, means that you can really go anywhere in the world.”

Asked whether nighttime parachute jumps are more challenging, Weightman responded, “For us it’s not much more. You know, we own the night, so once we get on the drop zone, we have an asymmetric advantage against our adversaries.”

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Talisman Sabre is meant to showcase interoperability, which is “easy to talk about but hard to do,” according to the colonel.

Nighttime jumps demonstrate “the highest level of proficiency,” he said.

After refitting in Townsville, more than 400 American paratroopers were to join 100 German and 36 French soldiers to perform another nighttime jump on July 21, this time at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland.

“This airfield seizure and expanded lodgment is very classic – it’s the bread and butter of the airborne infantry,” Weightman noted.

The 11th Airborne Division possesses two of the U.S. Army’s five airborne brigades: the 1st Brigade is a mobile combat brigade equipped with Infantry Squad Vehicles, while 2nd Brigade is airborne. Asked what his division brings, Weightman highlighted two things – the ability to move anywhere in the Indo-Pacific, and the other is its Arctic mission.

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“We’re the only brigades in the world that have the ability to conduct offensive operations in the Arctic,” the commander said. The troops can operate in arctic climates or the subtropics of Australia with equal adeptness.

Defense News asked whether there is still a place for airborne units on modern battlefields. After all, Russia’s airmobile operation at Hostomel Airport at the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 ended disastrously.

“I would argue, yes,” Weightman responded. “And as I’m looking from the enemy’s perspective, what we’re able to do would absolutely scare me if I was the enemy of our country.”

The Indo-Pacific region is rife with tensions – China, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula – and the 11th Airborne Division is ready to accomplish offensive, defensive, stability or expeditionary operations, said the brigade commander.

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Asked about the rising threat from China, Weightman responded, “You know, we’re not training against a specific adversary. What we’re training to do is to be interoperable with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.”

However, he continued, “If we’re able to do that and mass power from anywhere to anywhere at scale, then we should be able to beat any adversary and keep the Indo-Pacific region open.”

The exercise was the eleventh iteration of Talisman Sabre. The drill involved more than 40,000 troops from 19 nations.

Darwin [Australia], July 22 (ANI): After jumping from half a dozen C-17A transport aircraft, US Army paratroopers dropped silently from the starry sky, their light-colored parachutes visible under the moonlight. The soldiers descended onto foreign soil and immediately began collecting their gear before beginning a 50 km march to seize their objective, an airfield.

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Hundreds of miles away, US Marines touched down at an entirely different airfield by MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. As they poured out of the aircraft, they spread out to expand their perimeter, allowing follow-on aircraft to land and reinforce their position deep in enemy territory.

Elsewhere along the coast, a fleet of naval and amphibious ships from the USA, Australia, Japan, and South Korea appeared out of the darkness like apparitions. A flotilla of landing craft and hovercraft shuttled troops, vehicles, and equipment from ship to shore, creating a lodgment.

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These were all activities occurring around Australia as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, at sites stretching 5,300 km from east to west. This biennial exercise took place from July 13 to 27, 2025, and involved Australia, the USA, and 17 other nations.

Returning participants were Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Tonga and the United Kingdom.

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There were five first-timers too: India, Singapore, Thailand, the Netherlands and Norway. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Vietnam joined as observers as they assessed whether to participate in two years’ time.

With more than 40,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen involved, this was the largest-ever iteration of this important multilateral exercise. Brigadier Damian Hill, Talisman Sabre’s exercise director, told ANI that the wargames encompassed 80 training areas and bases. Participating were more than 150 aircraft and 30 ships. Hill described it as “the mini-Olympics” of military exercises.

However, what was particularly interesting was the notional enemy in the exercise scenario. The adversary for all these troops was the fictitious People’s Republic of Olvana. Readers may be forgiven if they have not visited or encountered Olvana before. After all, it is a made-up country that appears in the Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE) used by the US Army. DATE provides detailed background information about opposing forces in training activities.

According to DATE, freely available on the US Army’s website, the People’s Republic of Olvana is a communist nation created in the mid-20th century. Its capital is a city named Shanghai, and Olvana has a population of 1.12 million people. The DATE framework describes it thus: “Today, Olvana’s massive economy and modernising military have enabled it to become a regional hegemon capable of exerting tremendous pressure and influence throughout the region and across the globe.”

The backstory continued: “Olvana’s military has been undergoing a push to modernise its equipment and transform the way it prepares for and executes military operations.”

“Olvana is a large country located in eastern Asia that borders three major bodies of water: the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” the description continued. The clincher is an accompanying map of Olvana, which shows it occupying the territory of modern China! There can be little doubt that this DATE “red force” accurately replicates the capabilities and location of China. Indeed, Olvana was the “enemy” during this and recent editions of Talisman Sabre.

Whereas counter-insurgency warfare was once the bread and butter of previous Talisman Sabres, especially when Australia, the USA and partners were heavily engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, now the exercise focus has swung soundly into rehearsing a conventional conflict against a peer adversary.

There is one explanation for this switch in focus: the rising might of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) under the tutelage of Chairman Xi Jinping.

Asked about Talisman Sabre 2025’s connection to China, Hill said deterrence against the likes of Beijing “is not a specific objective of the exercise, but it’s definitely part of the Defence Strategic Review and the National Defence Strategy that’s been released by the Australian government, that we have a message of deterrence via denial. The exercise, like every activity that Defence does, contributes to the defense mission, which is to defend Australia and its national interests.”

The exercise director added: “The vast majority of the training is focused on us and how we work together.” He said that “working out how the techniques and procedures work together… is really the real challenge. So, this is all about interoperability.”

The type of activities occurring is also informative. Battalion-sized parachute jumps after intercontinental flights, seizing airfields and conducting amphibious landings are all the kinds of operations one would expect in an Asia-Pacific context.

Take the US Marine Corps, for example. Using KC-130J Hercules aircraft and Ospreys, the 2,500-strong Marine Rotational Force, Darwin (MRF-D), currently stationed in Darwin in northern Australia–bounded across the Outback to seize remote airstrips and establish forward arming and refueling points.

First, members of MRF-D captured an airstrip at Timber Creek, some 375 miles south of Darwin. Next up was Nackeroo within the Bradshaw Training Area in the Northern Territory. Finally, MRF-D seized an airfield at Cloncurry in Queensland.

These efforts were supposed to mimic the type of island-hopping campaign that typified the Pacific Campaign in World War II, as troops moved from one remote island to another. Significantly, the second seizure coincided with an important event on 15 July at Bradshaw. The activity was the first firing of the American land-based Typhon missile system, also called Mid-Range Capability (MRC), outside the USA.

The MRC fired an SM-6 missile hundreds of miles to hit a target in the sea somewhere north of Australia. This event was conducted by the Hawaii-based 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) of the US Army.

Colonel Wade Germann, Commander of the 3rd MDTF, stated, “The deployment of the MRC and successful execution of an SM-6 live fire against a maritime target is another significant step forward in our ability to deploy, integrate and command and control advanced land-based maritime strike capabilities.”

So, what was significant about this particular missile firing? Within the exercise scenario, the missile was fired to clear waters of enemy naval vessels around one of the notional “islands.” In fact, this is how the USA and allies would operate in any war with China, occupying and defending important links in the so-called First Island Chain, such as islands in southern Japan, Taiwan or the Philippines.

By holding these islands and bringing in mobile anti-ship missiles like the Typhon or the shorter-range NMESIS of the US Marines, the USA can create protective bubbles around these islands. Indeed, the missiles can target any PLA Navy warships attempting to penetrate the First Island Chain.

The Typhon can fire either SM-6 or Tomahawk missiles against land or ship targets. Loaded with Tomahawks, for example, the Typhon can dominate waters within a 1,000-mile radius. A string of such batteries dispersed along the First Island Chain would greatly complicate the PLA’s ability to break through into the Western Pacific.

Therefore, this firing was one of the strongest deterrence signals against China to come out of Talisman Sabre 2025. Indeed, the flexibility and deployability of the MRC would pose serious problems for the PLA; it can be airlifted by C-17 aircraft into austere locations, for example.

Certainly, the USA is concerned about China’s aggressive behavior and its astounding build-up of the PLA. Weapons like the Typhon therefore help to deter Chinese aggression, especially now that the system has been demonstrated as being deployable to destinations as far away as Australia. Furthermore, the US Army moved another MRC battery to the Philippines in April 2024, and it remains there to this day. In January 2025, it relocated to another Philippine location.

The US Army has not fired the MRC in the Philippines, something that China would consider extremely provocative, despite its own massive arsenal of missiles and its practice of occasionally firing them into the South China Sea or near Taiwan.

Incidentally, a US Congressional Research Service report published in April stated this: “China considers the deployment of MRC batteries in the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific as potentially ‘destabilizing’ and that their presence in the region could lead to an ‘arms race.’ Given these reactions, it could be argued that MRC units are contributing to deterrence operations in the Indo-Pacific and might also play a similar role in other regions as well,” the document concluded.

The US Army said of the Australian firing of the SM-6 missile: “The live fire provided valuable insights and lessons learned that will inform the development and employment of future land-based maritime strike and strategic strike capabilities.” It added that this weapon system can contribute to “regional security and stability.” As well as Typhon, other weapons like the 1,700-mile-range long-range Dark Eagle hypersonic missile could help break down China’s anti-access, area-denial strategy around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

This maiden firing of the Typhon west of the International Dateline was just one of 79 “firsts” planned to occur in Talisman Sabre 2025. Another first was Australia live-firing its newly delivered HIMARS rocket launchers on 14 July.

Hill told ANI that Talisman Sabre’s vast geographic scope aided realistic training. “Australia is vast, but nowhere near as vast as the region that we live in day to day. So, operating across the vast expanses of Australia is a way of us testing how we might operate in the region in times of need. The geography, the time, the space, the limited infrastructure, really test nations, especially from nations who may not have that same level of geography, but who may have to operate in the region. It really does test our ability to operate over vast distances,” he shared.

Even the aforementioned airborne parachute drop acts as a form of deterrence against China. Colonel Brian Weightman, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division, told ANI that six C-17 aircraft dropped 323 Americans and a dozen German paratroopers into Australia after flying from Alaska. He spoke of his training mission thus: “To be able to do that with real violence and at speed is really impressive, and I think it should scare adversaries.”

He added, “To be able to directly deliver an infantry battalion with its command that is situationally aware and physically optimized onto a drop zone 7,000 miles away, means that you can really go anywhere in the world.”

Weightman’s brigade is one of five airborne brigades in the US Army. He said his unit brings two advantages: the ability to move anywhere in the Indo-Pacific and to operate in the Arctic. “As I’m looking from the enemy’s perspective, what we’re able to do would absolutely scare me if I was the enemy of our country. And not just to the shores of a country, but to any place in that country.” He continued, “No other capability, or no other formation, gives us that ability.”

Asked directly about the threat from China, Weightman replied, “You know, we’re not training against a specific adversary. What we’re training to do is to be interoperable with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.” Yet he added, “If we’re able to do that and mass power from anywhere to anywhere at scale, then we should be able to beat any adversary and keep the Indo-Pacific region open.”

The USA and UK both operated aircraft in tandem in the Timor Sea north of Australia, another example of deterrence and interoperability. In recent years, China has always sent a spy ship to Australia to monitor these wargames, although there has been no report of one so far.

Exercise Talisman Sabre–the sum of innumerable moving parts, thousands of military personnel and powerful forces acting in concert–sends a powerful message of deterrence to bad actors like Olvana… and China. (ANI)

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

Australia has been warned to take China’s military build-up “seriously”, with the threat of Beijing to the Indo-Pacific region being likened to the danger Russia poses to Europe.

The Prime Minister spent much of last week touting Australia’s trade, tourism and research offerings in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu.

Securing peace through economic interdependence was a strategy the EU used with Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union – a ploy that ultimately came back to bite the bloc when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.

General Onno Eichelsheim is in Australia for Talisman Sabre – annual war games hosted by the Australian Defence Force, and said the country should “get ready for something that you hope will never happen”.

Speaking to the ABC, General Eichelsheim said Australia should not ignore the parallels between China and Russia.

Dutch defence chief Onno Eichelsheim is urging Australia to boost its military spending. Picture: Dutch Ministry of Defence / Handout

“You should look at the facts that are around you … if Russia tells us that they want to have more, more influence, than take that seriously,” he said.

“And if you see in this case in this region, China building up, take it seriously and get ready for something that you hope will never happen.

“If you prepare for war, you can avoid war. And that’s how we look at it.”

During a press conference in China, NewsWire put to Mr Albanese that there were similarities between his approach to managing the relationship with Beijing and Europe’s pre-Ukraine war approach to managing its relationship with Moscow.

He denied there was.

“Our relationship is very different,” Mr Albanese said.

“And I don’t think you can translate one thing across some other part of the world of which Australia is not a participant.”

The Trump administration has called on the Albanese government to hike defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, warning of an “imminent” threat to the Indo-Pacific.

The concern is driven by China’s constant war drills around Taiwan and rapid military build-up, including a massive expansion of its atomic arsenal.

NewsWire asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if he was concerned China posed a similar threat to China as Russia did to the EU. Picture: Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer / NewsWire

As of mid-2024, China’s operational nuclear warheads exceeded 600, according to the US Department of Defense.

That was nearly triple what the country was estimated to have in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has said build up was sparking “security anxiety” in Australia.

But Mr Albanese and his government have been firm to resist calls, both domestic and international, to boost the Australian Defence Force’s budget.

General Eichelsheim, whose country recently agreed to hike defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP in line with most of NATO, said a GDP percentage was not the only important measure, but that Australia would need to do more one way or another.

“It’s not about the percentage, it’s about the capabilities,” he said.

“But inevitably, I think Australia has to increase its capabilities as well, if you look at the region, and the build-up in this case of China.

“Also, if they need to help out Europe, which (Australia is) actually already doing – if you look at the war in Ukraine, and supporting us there.”

Royal Air Force and United States Marine Corps F-35B Lightning IIs and EA-18G Growler, E-7A Wedgetail fly over the Northern Territory airspace during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. [Photo: defence.gov.au/photo David Gibbs]

Massive war games began across Australia last week involving almost 40,000 troops, missiles and other advanced weaponry. This year’s iteration of the biannual Talisman Sabre exercise is the largest yet, involving not only the chief participants, the US and Australia, but 17 other countries including Washington’s allies throughout the region and internationally.

Talisman Sabre is largely subject to a media blackout in Australia. The population is being kept in the dark, because what is being carried out would provoke widespread fear and opposition.

In its geographical scope, the number of participants and the aggressive character of the military operations being trialled, Talisman Sabre is a dress rehearsal for a US-led war against China. In addition to the tens of thousands of troops, some of the most potent weaponry in the world is being deployed to Australia, including the U.S. Navy’s George Washington Carrier Strike Group, F-35 fighter jets and long-range missiles.

The target of the exercises has been explicitly stated. In a feature article, the Wall Street Journal declared: “The biennial exercise, called Talisman Sabre, is meant to send a message to China: The U.S. and its partners are ready to respond together to aggression from Beijing, which has been increasingly asserting itself in what it regards as its sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane, who commands the U.S. Army’s I Corps, told the Journal: “Everyone is seeing the aggressive activities that China is doing. That’s why they’re more interested in what they need to do to protect their sovereign interests.”

Australian Army soldiers conduct Tactical Air Land Operation as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Rockhampton, QLD. [Photo: defence.gov.au/photo Janet Pan]

The depiction of China as the aggressor and the US as the protector of sovereignty and international law turns reality on its head. The fascistic Trump administration is trampling on the US Constitution domestically, while dispensing with all pretenses of legal norms in international relations, from the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza to a tariff regime that has the character of an economic war on the world.

In reality, the Trump regime is escalating a more than decade long US military build-up in the Indo-Pacific, directed against China, because it is viewed as the chief threat to the economic dominance of American imperialism.

The line was set by Trump’s Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who delivered a bellicose tirade against China at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in late May. Hegseth declared that Beijing posed a “threat” that “could be imminent.” Top US military commanders have predicted a war against China over control of Taiwan within the next several years.

Hegseth demanded that US allies in Asia immediately boost their defence spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product. Then, last week, on the eve of Talisman Sabre, the Trump administration leaked to the media its demands that Australia and Japan commit their military assets to participation in the war with China that is being prepared.

Talisman Sabre underscores that these are not simply words, but that advanced, on-the-ground planning is underway for how such a war would be waged. The participants in the exercise include all of Washington’s allies which would be involved in a conflict.

The UK is taking part, meaning that together with the US and Australia, all participants in the AUKUS military pact directed against China are involved. AUKUS includes the sale of US nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and a broader build-up, including plans for hypersonic missiles and other advanced weaponry.

India, whose authoritarian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has played an increasingly prominent role in the anti-China campaign is a participant. So too is Japan, which, with US encouragement has effectively jettisoned its post-World War II pacifist constitution, while embarking on its largest military expansion since that catastrophic conflict.

That means that Talisman Sabre also encompasses the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The QUAD, which is a de facto alliance of the largest militaries in the region, the US, Japan, India and Australia directed against China, has provoked continuous opposition from Beijing.

Other regional US allies, including South Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines, are taking part. Several South East Asian nations, including Indonesia, have also sent contingents, under conditions where Washington is demanding that these countries end their balancing acts between the US and China.

Live-fire HIMARS training at Shoalwater Bay during Talisman Sabre 2025 exercises [Photo: defence.gov.au/photo Michael Rogers]

The global scope of Talisman Sabre is underscored by the involvement of the major European powers, including France and Germany. Both have embarked upon enormous military expansions and are centrally involved, alongside the US, in the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. That conflict is widely viewed in Washington as a stepping stone to war with China.

Talisman Sabre’s exercises include a number of “firsts.” Missiles from the Typhon system, which have never been fired west of the international date line, will be launched. Given their range of 1,200 miles, they could fire deep into the Indo-Pacific, or if stationed in a South East or North East Asian ally of Washington, could reach into mainland China.

The Wall Street Journal declared that the system would be “crucial if Washington wants to control important sea lanes around Taiwan in a conflict.”

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, are also being fired for the first time on Australian soil. HIMARS, provided to Ukraine by Washington, have played a key role in the war with Russia. The truck-launched system is highly mobile. Again, the Journal noted approvingly that the “US and its allies could use the system to hit Chinese targets from islands.”

Drones are being deployed more in this iteration of Talisman Sabre than ever before, with the Journal and national security commentators drawing a direct relationship of their centrality to the Ukraine war.

In an exercise last week, 335 US paratroopers dropped into Charters Towers, in a night-time raid where they mock seized control of the small outback Queensland town. The paratroopers had flown some 10,000 kilometres from Alaska.

That showed “we own the night,” US Colonel Brian Weightman told local media. “Our ability to fly halfway around the world, communicate in real time and drop combat-ready troops and equipment into an area should serve as a reminder to any potential adversary.”

In another operation, US, Australian, South Korean, Japanese and French naval forces descended on Cowley Beach in North Queensland, staging an amphibious landing.

The Australian Defence Department declared this showed the ability of the US allies to use a “diverse range of landing craft” to get to “shore, where they can secure a beach landing site and allow forces to push forward.” The “force” had “built a comprehensive battle plan, integrating doctrine and processes from the group of partners, to successfully deliver a battle group assault.”

All of these activities are a trial run for what would be an offensive war against China in the Indo-Pacific. Already, the Australian military, as well as other regional US allies, are overhauling to prepare for a conflict that would be centred on the control of waters and islands off the Chinese mainland.

Significantly, Talisman Sabre includes exercises in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for the first time. The largest state in the South West Pacific, and the only one with major port facilities that could service a military in time of war, PNG has been pressured to align ever more closely with the anti-China build up, by both Washington and Canberra.

The beginning of Talisman Sabre coincided with a six-day visit by Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to China.

Albanese’s government has completed Australia’s transformation into a launching pad for a US war in the Indo-Pacific, through a vast expansion of US basing, especially in the north and west of the continent where Talisman Sabre’s most potent exercises are being held. But his government and the ruling elite are clearly fearful of the implications of a full-scale conflict with China, which remains Australia’s largest trading partner.

A similar dilemma confronts a host of states throughout the region. But the clear message from the US is that the time for such balancing acts is over.

Talisman Sabre underscores the reality that what is already developing is a war that has an increasingly global dimension. For the strategists of imperialism, the war against Russia in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza and associated attacks, including against Iran, and the build-up against China are fronts in a single worldwide conflict.

As in the 1930s, the major powers, led by the US, are responding to the breakdown of global capitalism, with a turn to militarism threatening a nuclear catastrophe.

The working class must respond with its own international strategy, based on uniting its struggles globally in a common fight to overturn the profit system and establish a peaceful socialist society on a world scale.

U.S. special forces are in Townsville, a key military hub on Australia’s northeast coast, taking part in the country’s largest-ever war games, Exercise Talisman Sabre.

The massive multinational drill involves more than 35,000 troops from 19 countries and spans land, sea, air, space and cyber domains. It’s a show of strength and solidarity among allies in the Indo-Pacific. It also serves as a message to China: Any move to assert territorial claims by force would come at a cost.

During the exercise, Australia live-fired a U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket system for the first time in Queensland’s sprawling outback, marking a new level of defense cooperation between the two nations.

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While troops train shoulder to shoulder, there’s a growing sense they’re being watched. Chinese surveillance ships are expected, as they have been during every Talisman Sabre since 2017. Australian officials say that presence is routine but note they’ll be monitoring closely and adjusting operations as needed.

For the first time, some drills are also taking place in Papua New Guinea, Australia’s northern neighbor, signaling a strategic expansion of the exercise’s footprint.

Every movement on land, water and in the air is being made with the understanding that this isn’t just a drill — it’s a message.

Quietly operating alongside coalition forces are members of America’s most elite units. Their mission here isn’t just training, it’s preparation for the moment a geopolitical crisis erupts and the call comes.