Australia hosts largest-ever Talisman Sabre military exercise

MELBOURNE, Australia — The largest-ever war-fighting drills in Australia, Exercise Talisman Sabre , are underway and expected to attract the attention of Chinese spy ships.

Australia launched missiles from its M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, on Monday during live-fire exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, a 1,700-square-mile Outback expanse in Queensland state. The HIMARS launchers were recently bought from the United States.

“Today was the first time the Australian Army has live-fired our long-range, multi-domain platforms being the HIMARS, so it is a remarkable day,” Brig. Nick Wilson told reporters.

Talisman Sabre began in 2005 as a biennial joint exercise between the United States and Australia.

This year, more than 35,000 military personnel from 19 nations, including Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and the United Kingdom, will take part over three weeks, Australia’s defense department said.

Malaysia and Vietnam are also attending as observers.

The exercise will also take place in Papua New Guinea, Australia’s nearest neighbor. It is the first time Talisman Sabre activities have been held outside Australia.

South Korean soldiers fire from a K1 tank during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 at Shoalwater Bay Training Area on Monday. (Rick Rycroft/AP)

Chinese surveillance ships have monitored naval exercises off the Australian coast during the last four Talisman Sabre exercises and were expected to surveil the current exercise, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.

“The Chinese military have observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it,” Conroy said.

“We’ll adjust accordingly. We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia, but we’ll also adjust how we conduct those exercises,” Conroy added.

Conroy said the Chinese were not yet shadowing ships as of Sunday.

The exercise officially started on Sunday with a ceremony in Sydney attended by Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific Lt. Gen. J.B. Vowell and Australia’s Chief of Joint Operations Vice Adm. Justin Jones.

The exercise, showcasing Australia’s defense alliance with the United States, started a day after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese began a six-day visit to China, where he is expected to hold his fourth face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.

Albanese said Chinese surveillance of Talisman Sabre would not be an issue raised with Xi.

“That would be nothing unusual. That has happened in the past and I’ll continue to assert Australia’s national interest, as I do,” Albanese told reporters in Shanghai on Monday.

Albanese also noted that while he had visited the United States as prime minister five times, he had only been to China twice.

The Australian leader has been criticized at home for failing to secure a face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump .

“I look forward to a constructive engagement with President Trump. We have had three constructive phone conversations,” Albanese said.

澳大利亚墨尔本——澳大利亚有史以来规模最大的军事演习“护身军刀”正在进行中，预计将引起中国间谍船的注意。

周一，澳大利亚在昆士兰州内陆占地1700平方英里的肖尔沃特湾训练区进行实弹演习，并使用其M142高机动性火箭炮系统（简称HIMARS）发射导弹。这些HIMARS发射装置是澳大利亚近期从美国购入的。

“今天是澳大利亚陆军首次实弹射击我们的远程多域平台——HIMARS，所以这是意义非凡的一天，”尼克·威尔逊准将告诉记者。

“护身军刀”演习始于2005年，是美国和澳大利亚每两年一次的联合演习。

澳大利亚国防部表示，今年将有来自19个国家的35000多名军人参加为期三周的演习，这些国家包括加拿大、斐济、法国、德国、印度、印度尼西亚、日本、荷兰、新西兰、挪威、巴布亚新几内亚、菲律宾、韩国、新加坡、泰国、汤加和英国。

马来西亚和越南也以观察员身份出席。

此次演习还将在澳大利亚的近邻巴布亚新几内亚举行。这是“护身军刀”演习首次在澳大利亚境外进行。

周一，在肖尔沃特湾训练区举行的“护身军刀2025”联合军演中，韩国士兵从一辆K1坦克上射击。（里克·赖克罗夫特/美联社）

国防工业部长帕特·康罗伊表示，中国监视船在过去四次“护身军刀”演习中都对澳大利亚海岸附近的海军演习进行了监视，预计也将对本次演习进行监视。

康罗伊说：“中国军方自2017年以来就一直在观察这些演习。他们不观察的情况非常不寻常。”

康罗伊补充说：“我们会做出相应的调整。我们当然会观察他们的活动，监控他们在澳大利亚各地的存在，但我们也会调整我们开展这些演习的方式。”

康罗伊表示，截至周日，中国方面还没有对船只进行跟踪。

此次演习于周日在悉尼举行仪式正式开始，美国太平洋陆军副司令JB·沃维尔中将和澳大利亚联合行动司令贾斯汀·琼斯海军中将出席了仪式。

此次演习旨在展示澳大利亚与美国的防务联盟，演习开始于澳大利亚总理安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯开始对中国进行为期六天访问的第二天。预计他将于周二在北京与中国国家主席习近平举行第四次面对面会晤。

阿尔巴尼斯表示，中国对“护身军刀”系统的监控问题不会向习近平提出。

“这没什么不寻常的。过去也发生过这样的事，我会像以往一样继续维护澳大利亚的国家利益，”阿尔巴尼斯周一在上海对记者说。

阿尔巴尼斯还指出，虽然他曾以总理身份访问美国五次，但只访问过中国两次。

澳大利亚领导人因未能与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普举行面对面会晤而在国内受到批评。

阿尔巴尼斯说：“我期待与特朗普总统进行建设性对话。我们已经进行了三次富有建设性的电话交谈。”