THE WASH UP!

Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 comes to an end.

 

 

Report: Jaryd Stock

Images: Jaryd Stock, Calen McDougall, Aaron Antonucci

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the 4^th of August, the 11^th iteration of Exercise Talisman Sabre officially concluded at a closing ceremony in Lae, Papua New Guinea.

Following three weeks of intensive training and high-end warfighting scenarios across Australia, and complex training exercises in Papua New Guinea, more than 40,000 military personnel from 19 participating nations and two observer nations will return home.

Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral combined training activity conducted between the Australian Defence Force and the United States Armed Forces. It reflects the strength of the enduring Alliance and our commitment to working with regional partners.

The final activity of Talisman Sabre 2025 saw personnel from Australia, the United States and Papua New Guinea’s defence forces come together to conduct a Joint Personnel Recovery activity across several training locations between Lae and Wewak in Papua New Guinea.

 

Highlights of Talisman Sabre 2025 in Australia included

• The first live firing of the Australian M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), including using the Precision Strike Missile.
• A successful land to sea engagement of the United States Mid-Range Capability (MRC) using an SM-6 missile against a maritime target.
• Participation of the United Kingdom-led Carrier Strike Group, representing the first time a non-US aircraft carrier has been involved in Talisman Sabre.
• A long-distance Joint Force Entry Operation that deployed 335 United States Army paratroopers from the 11th Airborne Division from Alaska to Charters Towers alongside French and German paratroopers.
• Large-scale amphibious operations involving forces from Australia, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

 

WAY OUT BACK.

The air component to this years exercise saw aircraft operate from a variety of locations and it showcased the ADF and International partners ability to operate from austere airfields spread through out Australia’s Top End.

Operating an airbase in an austere location may seem like a huge undertaking, but for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Contingency Response personnel deployed to RAAF Base Curtin, it was business as usual.

Deployed for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, the integrated team of more than 550 aviators, soldiers and five military working dogs demonstrated Air Force’s ability to conduct agile, expeditionary airbase operations in remote locations.

Commander of the Task Element and Base Commander, Wing Commander Paul Rickert, said planning the training continuum for an exercise of this scale started last year, ramping up into more detailed planning in 2025.

“Planning to run an airbase is quite a significant investment,” Wing Commander Rickert said.

“The Task Element contains personnel from a range of specialisations such as infantry combat teams from the Australian Army’s 2nd (Australian) Division and Air Force Security Forces, through to health, administration, logistics, engineering, firefighters and communications personnel.”

International partners from the United States Air Force (USAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force also integrated as part of the Task Element at RAAF Base Curtin across security, health, operations, logistics and air traffic control.

 

 

 

“This year we ratified a Sister Squadron agreement with USAF’s 36 Contingency Response Group and I am very proud to see their integration with 382 Contingency Response Squadron personnel during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025,” Wing Commander Rickert said.

“We have also seen a number of significant training milestones within the Role 2 Hospital and Mobile Air Operations Centre, including the endorsement of air traffic qualifications for Canadian Air Traffic Controllers.”

RAAF Base Curtin is located in Western Australia and is one of three Contingency Operating Bases postured to support land, air and sea operations aimed at securing Australia’s northern approaches.

“The open day was a way for us to show our appreciation to Derby and the broader Kimberley region communities for their ongoing support to the Australian Defence Force,” Wing Commander Rickert said.

“Derby and the surrounding community provide so much support to Defence in order for us to conduct training in the very region which is critical to the defence of Australia.

“Without this support, we would not be able to achieve the highly effective training outcomes that we do.

“We conduct regular activities here annually and the community has been amazing to acknowledge that support.”

 

PROJECTING POWER.

A total of 279 aircraft from Australia and partner nations participated in Talisman Sabre – while flying operations peaked at 200 sorties per day during the three week exercise.

Flying activities took place across Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, New South Wales, Christmas Island and, for the first time, Papua New Guinea with Special Operations teams from the U.S, Canada and Australia conducting Combat Search and Rescue operations.

Aircraft and aviators engaged in a wide range of complex missions including integrated air and missile defence, anti-submarine warfare, multi-domain strike operations, base response drills, force projection, and distributed logistics and mobility.

Commander Air Task Group 640.7 Air Commodore Louise desJardins said Talisman Sabre was not just about flying aircraft.

 

 

 

 

“It was about preparing for complex and demanding scenarios, and keeping our highly competent aviators at the top of their game,” Air Commodore desJardins said.

“It was a powerful demonstration of how Air Force contributes to Australia’s defence – by projecting air power as part of an integrated force – alongside our international partners and colleagues in the land, sea, cyber and space domains.

“We also exercised key airbase operations from austere environments, including air traffic control, medical support, air base command and integrated security protection with the Australian Army, which is essential for Defence’s projection of air power from northern bases.”

Nearly every aircraft type in the Australian fleet was involved, including the F-35A Lightning II, P-8A Poseidon, C-17A Globemaster III, C-130J Hercules and C-27J Spartan, with air battle management coordinated between 3 Control and Reporting Unit, 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit and 2 Squadron’s E-7A Wedgetail.

While the exercise tested people and platforms under pressure, it also provided critical opportunities to strengthen international partnerships, while improving the ability to work together in real-world operations.

 

FIRST TIME ATTENDEES.

A number of firsts were recorded in this exercise, a snapshot of those significant moments was provided earlier in this article, with a total of 79 firsts occurring in this exercise. For the aviation assets a number of first time attendees were seen during last months exercise.

Deploying to RAAF Base Edinburgh was the U.S. Air Force 55th Reconnaissance Wing based at Offutt Air Force, Nebraska. The wing deployed a single RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft to Edinburgh to act as an intelligence gathering aircraft working closely with crews from RAAF No.2 Squadron operations the E-7A Wedgetail from RAAF Base Darwin.

The Royal Canadian Air Force presence in Australia was enhanced with a number of first time attendees. Three CC-146 Griffins from 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron deployed to Australia onboard a CC-177A Globemaster from 429 Squadron.

The Griffins deployed to Sydney firstly where they conducted Air Task Group operations with Australian Army 6th Aviation Regiment and U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Air Regiment (Airborne) conducting a number of training scenarios at the Holsworthy Barracks where 6th AVN are located.

 

 

Departing Sydney on the onset of the exercise all Special Operations Aviation Squadrons operated in Papa New Guinea conducting Combat Search and Rescue training scenarios working together to gain more interoperability in remote areas.

429 Squadron which operate the CC-177A Globemaster also transversed the length and breadth of the Australia conducting a number of operations in and out of austere airfields such as Nackeroo airfield in the Bradshaw Field training area south of Darwin, to conduct HIRAIN mission into Christmas Island off the West Australian Coast (Article on that mission can be read HERE).

An interesting visitor to Australia which was only participating in the exercise for a week was the U.S. Navy P-9A Poseidon which operated out of RAAF Base Amberley.

The Poseidon is assigned to the extremely secretive Bureau of Naval Personnel Sea Duty Component (BUPERS SDC) at Dallas Love Field Airport, Texas and carries a new-generation and highly classified AN/APS-154 Advanced Airborne Sensor (AAS) pod.

As far as information accessible on the externally carried pod goes, it is manufactured by Raytheon, the AN/APS-154 pod is an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar that features next-generation line-of-sight capabilities.

The double-sided AESA radar also contains a moving target indicator (MTI) – which can simultaneously detect, classify and track targets on land and sea – along with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) for mapping both inland and ocean areas at the same time while generating picture-like radar imagery.

When used in operations, the AAS-equipped P-8A can detect and classify a hostile vessel, before transmitting targeting information to combat aircraft and guide a networked weapon to the target via a datalink. The AAS is also specifically designed to work in littoral regions where it might have to scan both water and land areas simultaneously.

 

 

 

This is an opportune time for Raytheon to display its hardware to the RAAF as the Australian Army takes delivery of and highlights their M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), rocket artillery system at the exercise.

With Australia being completely surrounded by water the AESA radar system in the AN-APS-154 pod can help identify targets and relay that information to HIMAR systems which have been positioned under HIRAIN missions undertaken by RAAF No.36 Squadron’s C-17 aircraft to guard the northern maritime approaches.

Having the use of the pod could help RAAF with their own P-8 Poseidons by fitting them to a few aircraft allowing them to track and target opposing forces in littoral and maritime environments, feed that information to HIMAR assets which can fire the Precision Strike Missile which has a range of over 1,000 kilometres.

In March the RAAF Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Stephen “Chapps” Chappell at the Avalon Airshow stated that there was a request for proposals (RFP) for a business jet based ISR platform which was needed. At the time he said that the the RAAF are not thinking about the platform centric game, but more of a sensor centric game, meaning the RAAF needs a variety of sensors to mesh together to create a whole picture of the battle space using a variety of capabilities and aircraft.

 

Another first with over 4,000 personnel participating in the exercise was the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group participating in Talisman Sabre for the first time.

This was an important exercise for the UK Lightning Force carrier air wing embarked onboard the aircraft carrier, with Royal Air Force 617 Squadron affectionately known as the “Dambusters” and Royal Navy 809 Squadron which operate the F-35B Lightning.

Talisman Sabre marked the occasion of the UK declaring Full Operational Capability achieved for the F-35 Bravo in both the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy service, and achievement that the UK were pleased to tell APD in our video interview below.

 

 

While the exercise tested people and platforms under pressure, it also provided critical opportunities to strengthen international partnerships, while improving the ability to work together in real-world operations.

“Australia, alongside the 18 participating countries, built trust, improved how we worked together and ensured we can operate effectively as a combined force,” Air Commodore desJardins said.

“Through training like this, we ensure that when our country needs us, we’re ready.”