US, Australia to conduct largest military logistic exercise in Indo-Pacific region

Asia-Pacific, News, US April 11, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The U.S. Army is teaming up with its Australian counterpart in the Pacific region to conduct one of the largest military logistics exercises called Talisman Sabre 2023. The exercise would be conducted from July 22 to August 4, 2023.

The two-week-long logistics exercise would focus on improving the movement of military personnel and delivery of massive amounts of equipment across challenging terrains and large distances. More than 17000 military personnel from the U.S. and Australian military forces participated in the last installment of the exercise in 2021. The numbers are expected to grow even further this year.

According to the U.S. Army’s 8th Theater Sustainment Commander Brig. Gen. Jered Helwig, “The scale is an order of magnitude higher than anything that has ever been done before”.

He said that “We have quadrupled the amount of equipment that we’re bringing” While speaking at the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium, Helwig said that the large scale of this year’s exercise can be assessed by the fact that, “one of the contested things is ensuring that we can [keep] the leopard snail from getting into Australia.”

Helwig also said that due to Australia’s strict agriculture laws, the U.S. military forces would spend weeks cleaning the military equipment at Oahu, Hawaii, to prevent the pests and other insects from entering the Australian eco-system.

Military forces from Australia and the U.S. conduct Talisman Sabre exercise every other year, to prioritize the logistics tail while emphasizing other joint operations. Military forces from South Korea, Indonesia, and Japan have also joined the exercises in the past, however, so far it has not yet been confirmed whether any other party would join the exercise.

*^{Australian Army soldiers conducting a Combined Unit Training Activity at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, QLD. (Image Credit: Twitter/@AustralianArmy)}*

According to some officials, this year’s exercise would feature a joint logistics over-the-shore drill where the U.S. Army would take 17 M1 Abrams tanks off of its Army Prepositioned Stock and load them onto a watercraft. One of the drills includes uploading of more than 400 pieces of rolling stocks onto the watercraft. The watercraft would land on an undeveloped beach and the tanks will roll off to conclude the drills.

Although the U.S. military has been conducting such exercises in all terrains in the past, it has never conducted such exercises in the Indo-Pacific region at such a scale. The intensity of the U.S.’s show of power is a result of China’s increasing military expansion in the region.