Japan’s Marines Storm Beach Alongside Australian, US Troops

Marines of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force’s (JGSDF) new Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), alongside U.S. Marines and Australian naval infantry, conducted a beach raid exercise and a separate beach landing, next to other operations, during this year’s Talisman Sabre exercise, according to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

The bilateral United States-Australia Talisman Sabre military exercise (TS19) took place between July 7 and 27 in the Australian Defense Force’s Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area off the coast of Queensland, Australia. For the first time, Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) troops were invited to participate in the biannual exercise as trilateral U.S.-Japan-Australia military cooperation has expanded in recent years.

U.S. Marines, Australian service members, and elements of the ARDB jointly conducted “an integrated air campaign, combined forcible entry operations, amphibious raids, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) Rapid Insertion (HIRAIN),” according to the DoD press release. This included beach landings at Stanage Bay and near Bowen, a coastal town in eastern Queensland, Australia.