Sydney, July 15: India has joined 18 other countries in the Talisman Sabre 2025 military exercise, a major warfighting drill hosted by Australia that began on Sunday and involves more than 35,000 troops from across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Now in its 11th edition, Talisman Sabre is Australia’s largest and most sophisticated bilateral defence exercise, held in partnership with the United States. It is being conducted across multiple Australian states and territories — Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales, and Christmas Island — with some activities extending for the first time into Papua New Guinea, according to Australia’s Department of Defence.
Participating nations include the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, and others, while Malaysia and Vietnam are attending as observers.
The exercise features a broad range of operations, including live-fire drills, amphibious landings, ground manoeuvres, air combat, and maritime warfare. It will also showcase new Australian Defence Force capabilities such as UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and the Precision Strike Missile.
Vice-Admiral Justin Jones, Chief of Joint Operations of the Royal Australian Navy, and Lieutenant General Joel B. Vowell, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific, formally opened the event at Garden Island in Sydney.
“Talisman Sabre reflects our deep and growing cooperation with like-minded partners across the region,” the Australian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The exercise will run for three weeks, during which multinational forces will test interoperability in a range of complex scenarios aimed at enhancing collective security in the Indo-Pacific.
