Rockhampton (Australia): Long-range fires featured prominently at Exercise Talisman Sabre, the largest war games of their kind ever held in Australia.
Various anti-ship missile firings demonstrated the ability of the US and its allies to hit maritime targets from land-based launchers.
If current tensions between China and Taiwan ever boil over into war, dispersed and mobile anti-ship missiles situated near strategic maritime straits could contain China within the so-called First Island Chain, which stretches southward from the Japanese archipelago down through Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
This massive exercise in Australia, held from July 13-27, was marked by a number of firsts from Australia, Japan and the United States, as crews aboard HIMARS, Type 12 and Typhon launchers executed their respective fire missions.
The first full day of the exercise kicked off with plumes of rocket engine smoke as HIMARS from three nations – Australia, Singapore and the US – launched GMLRS munitions side-by-side.
This was the first time Australia had fired its brand new HIMARS, the initial units only arriving in March.
Maj Markus Spicer, executive officer of the US Army’s 1st, Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment – part of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade – said the firepower demonstration’s “interoperability between the partner forces was seamless, and we were able to execute timely and accurate fires.”
