Have you participated in the 'Talisman Sabre' biennial exercise?

More than 33,000 U.S. and Australian troops took part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial exercise that involved 21 ships including the aircraft carrier George Washington and the landing helicopter dock Bonhomme Richard’s expeditionary strike group.

Held from July 4-19, the exercise occurred as U.S. allies confront an increasingly aggressive China, which is building man-made islands in the South China Sea as part of its effort to push its territorial claims into waters that countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam believe belong to them.

China’s reported belligerence has forced Japan to review its role in the world. Japan’s constitution drafted after World War II renounces war. In this year’s Talisman Sabre exercise, sailors with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force participated as embedded units within the U.S. military.

Read more at ...

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/26/talisman-sabre-trying-deter-china/30574725/