”Down Under,” the biennial Talisman Sabre exercise kicked off this past week. Over the next two weeks, 13 nations will participate in high-end multi-domain warfighting across sea, land, air, cyber and space. Now in its 10th iteration, 2023 is the largest Exercise Talisman Sabre in terms of its geographical area and the number of participating partners, according to the Asia Pacific Defense Reporter publication. Talisman Sabre 2023 will involve more than 30,000 military personnel deploying across Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales. In addition to the United States, forces from Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Korea, Tonga, and the United Kingdom will participate in the exercise. Personnel from India, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are attending as observers. Also observing, though uninvited, will be the Chinese, as Australian officials reported on July 21 that a Chinese surveillance ship was off the east coast of Australia and was expected to move farther south as the exercise progresses.
Next week, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Australia, and he and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles will visit troops participating in the exercise in Queensland. U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, who visited Australia last week, told reporters that the exercise sends a message to China. “The most important message that China can take from this exercise and anything that our allies and partners do together is that we are extremely tied by the core values that exist among our many nations together,” Del Toro told reporters. “We are prepared to actually operate together in defense of our national security interests and in defense of the core values that we all share,” he added.
