Exercise Talisman Sabre, the largest ever war drills in Australia, is under way and expected to attract the attention of Chinese spy ships. More than 19 nations have come together for a live fire and field training exercises.

Darwin

The Talisman Sabre military exercise is currently taking place in Australia, with participation from more than 35,000 servicemen and women representing 19 nations. The event features large-scale training operations across air, land, and sea, utilizing assets such as C-17 aircraft for logistics and support. 

This year's exercise marks the largest airspace use in the event's history and includes first-time operations in Papua New Guinea and the Australian offshore territory of Christmas Island. The city of Darwin plays a central role, hosting a significant concentration of military forces as part of preparations for complex, high-end warfighting scenarios.

Military exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 begins at Shoalwater Bay

It's air travel, but not as you know it. This is a C-17. Pallets, machinery, people, anything that fits in its belly can be carried. Australia has them. So do the Brits. This one at Ambly is usually put to good use across the Pacific. Like in Canada, the wildfires have been really bad this year. So just helping out the Canadians with evacuating, that could be one thing. More than 35,000 servicemen and women from 19 countries are down under training wargaming. We're not sure if we'll be back here tomorrow or the next day or the next day or even tonight. So we're just kind of going with the flow. Every person, every nation learning something new. The Australians, I've learned lots just with how they load and stuff like that. So they have a lot of different techniques that I can bring back to Canada. 10 News embedded with the Canadians. Well, it's a four-hour flight time for us today from Ambly to Darwin. Right now, we're pretty much smack bang above the outback town of Winton. And it's from here that you get a real sense of the scale of this operation. In fact, this year, Talisman Sabre's airspace is the largest in its history. You will see us operate in Papua New Guinea for the very first time. And it's also the first time we've taken Talisman Sabre to the Australian offshore territories of Christmas Island. It's an act of strategic signalling or, if you like, a show of force. Darwin is crucial. Naval, land and air forces are based here. They've been targeted before, bombed in the Second World War by Japan. Tonight, the city of Darwin, home to 150,000 people, is alive again with military might. It's about preparing for complex, high-end warfighting. We're training our highly competent aviators, highly trained, as we do this. Knowing a time when war games aren't a game at all could be coming. Matt Johnston, 10 News.

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