Latest news with #militaryexercises
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Taipan-like helicopter to fly again during Talisman Sabre exercises in biannual war games
A version of the Taipan helicopter which Australia's Army permanently grounded after a deadly crash two years ago will be involved in the international military exercises where the devastating accident occurred. Australia immediately retired its fleet of European-designed MRH-90 'Taipans' following the July 2023 tragedy which killed Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph "Phillip" Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs. A defence investigation into the crash reported in May, and found evasive action taken by the pilot avoided more lives being lost. Australian personnel are likely to fly in three NH-90s operated by New Zealand's Defence Force as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 that formally gets underway this weekend. Since grounding its Taipan fleet, the Australian Defence Force has begun replacing the MRH-90 Taipans with new Black Hawks, but military sources claim the US-made helicopters can play only a limited role in this year's Talisman Sabre exercises. A defence spokesperson said both Black Hawks and Chinook helicopters will be in use by the army during Talisman Sabre. "The Australian Army will deploy rotary-wing capabilities from the Battlefield Aviation Program, including the CH-47F Chinook and UH-60M Black Hawks to support movement of troops and equipment across the battlefield," the defence spokesperson told the ABC. "Partner nations, including New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, will also deploy rotary-wing lift assets." The ABC has confirmed the Armed Reconnaissance (ARH) Tiger helicopters from the Australian Army's 1st Aviation Regiment will also provide armed reconnaissance support during the large-scale war drills. Singapore's Air Force will deploy two CH-47F Chinook helicopters for Talisman Sabre, while the United States Marine Corps will send its controversial MV-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft, which was also involved in a fatal crash in the Northern Territory in 2023. Since being introduced into service in 2007, Australia's fleet of MRH-90s was beset by technical problems and groundings, in contrast to the New Zealand NH-90 fleet which enjoys high flight availability and has just completed its latest upgrades. An official ceremony will mark the start of Talisman Sabre in Sydney on Sunday, with this year's exercises to be the largest in the event's history. Some 30,000 military personnel from 19 different countries will take part, including the United States, Canada, Fiji, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the Philippines. The biannual war games are the Australian Defence Force's largest exercise, and the largest bilateral exercises with the US. In its 11th year, for the first time Papua New Guinea will also host a Talisman Sabre activity, in a sign of deepening defence ties between Australia and its close northern neighbour. China has often sent surveillance vessels to monitor the military exercises off the coast of Queensland, including the two most recent iterations in 2023 and 2021. The military exercises are beginning as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travels to China, which is not among those countries taking part. The ADF has already said a Chinese vessel travelling close to Australia to monitor the exercises would not be "unusual or unexpected".
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
US threats to Aukus pact put united front against China at risk
In Taiwan, troops are training to fight off a potential Chinese invasion in the island's biggest military exercises to date. In northeastern Australia 30,000 military personnel from 19 countries, including the crew of a British aircraft carrier, are gathering for three weeks of war games. But even as western allies unite in a show of deterrence against Beijing, a defence pact between Britain, Australia and the United States is under a shadow. Aukus, the security agreement between the three countries, is under review by the US defence department after doubts about its value were expressed by one of President Trump's most influential security advisers. Although the Pentagon's conclusions have not yet been made public, there are fears in Canberra and London that Trump's government could walk away from the deal, or demand changes that would increase the cost to Australia and Britain. Aukus was unveiled four years ago by Boris Johnson, President Biden, and Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister at the time. Its primary goal is to build nuclear-powered, but conventionally armed, submarines for Australia to deter Chinese aggression in east Asia including any attempt to invade self-ruling Taiwan, which Beijing regards as its own territory. Johnson called it 'one of the most complex and technically demanding projects in the world' and promised that it would create jobs and prosperity at home and bring Britain closer to its allies. His national security adviser at the time, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, who is now Britain's Aukus envoy, insisted that it was a 'profound, strategic shift'. The pact has been consistently criticised by Beijing, which regards it as a pretext for encircling China and suppressing its ambitions to become a regional and world power. Under the agreement, Britain will use US nuclear propulsion technology to build up to 12 submarines known as SSN-Aukus, to be delivered to Australia in the 2030s. The deal is worth £4 billion to British defence companies. The problem is that Australia's existing Collins-class submarines will reach retirement age before the new ones are ready to be deployed. To fill the gap, the US promised to supply as many as five new Virginia-class submarines to Canberra. However, Elbridge Colby, Trump's undersecretary of defence, has questioned whether the US can afford to sell submarines, even to an ally, at a time when it needs them itself to face Chinese ambitions involving Taiwan and the South China Sea. Last year, before entering government, Colby asked: 'Why are we giving away this crown jewel asset when we most need it?' He later said: 'My problem is very clear, which is that we don't want to diminish our material war fighting capability in the near term.' If Colby does not change his mind, the US could potentially walk away from Aukus, leaving Australia either to abandon the project or find a way to fill the submarine gap — either by buying 'off-the-peg' diesel-powered boats from suppliers such as Germany or Japan, or by investing in air and navy missile systems that could perform some of the functions of submarines. Even if this could be achieved, the costs of the project would increase for Britain and Australia without US investment. Alternatively, Trump's government might use the threat of withdrawal to get more out of its allies. 'One way would be to say that Australia needs to line up with the new Nato standards, spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence,' Sam Roggeveen of the Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute, said. 'The other way to do it is to say Australia needs to contribute more to the shipbuilding industrial base in America so that they can speed up production.' The tension underlines the distinct approach to engaging with Trump being taken by the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who is maintaining a cool and tactical distance from the US president, in contrast with the fraught and anxious engagement by Nato leaders. Beginning on Sunday, Australia and the US will lead the multi-nation Talisman Sabre military exercises in Queensland, in which the British aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, will participate. Taiwan will continue with the second week of Han Kuang, a series of exercises that include civil defence drills, tank manoeuvres and defence against simulated Chinese cyberattacks. On Sunday Albanese flies to Beijing for his fourth meeting with President Xi. Six months into Trump's second term, he has still not met the US president, Australia's most important treaty ally. At a speech this week, Albanese espoused what he called 'the Australian way'. 'We do not seek our inspiration overseas,' he said. 'We find it right here in our people. And we carry it with us, in the way we engage with the world.' After a call by Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, he pointedly responded: 'We'll determine our defence policy.' All this suggests that Albanese would reject a third possible concession that the Americans might seek — a promise from Australia that it would send its Virginia-class submarines to fight off any Chinese invasion of Taiwan. It is hard to imagine a circumstance in which an Australian prime minister would refuse such a call for help but to make a binding commitment in advance would be a sacrifice of sovereignty at odds with Albanese's insistence on independent choice. 'If the Pentagon's review really is designed to leverage higher defence spending out of Australia, the prime minister will either have to perform a humiliating backdown or stand his ground, thereby threatening the submarine sale,' Roggeveen said. Lovegrove, who has been in Australia this week, has been at pains to play down the possibility of an Aukus crisis. 'The US Navy is right behind it,' he told Australian television. 'The state department is very much behind it [and] many players in the defence department are completely engaged in Aukus and everything it brings to the US. So I'm pretty comfortable that we'll end up with the right answer for the US, Australia and the UK — this is a critical, critical programme.'
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Taiwan Begins 10-Day Military Drills to Counter Chinese Threats
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan on Wednesday launched annual military exercises intended to guard against Chinese threats to invade, including using so-called gray zone tactics deployed by China that stop just short of open warfare. This year's 10-day live-fire Han Guang drills are the longest yet and follow the delivery of a range of new weaponry, from tanks to waterborne drones. The drills in Taiwan come as regional tensions and harassment by China and its People's Liberation Army (PLA) are increasing. China claims Taiwan as its territory to be annexed by force if necessary, while the vast majority of Taiwanese wish to become fully independent or retain their current status of de facto independence. The drills began with exercises to counter the actions of Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia ships that have been harassing Taiwanese ships around offshore island groups close to the Chinese coast, the Defense Ministry said. Concerns are that China could launch an invasion under the guise of petty harassment, and the drills will include fortifying ports and possible Chinese landing points on an island lying 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the Chinese coast. The drills will later focus on simulated anti-landing exercises with regular forces from all the services backed up by 22,000 reservists, the ministry said. Exercises will continue around the clock for 10 days under realistic conditions, taking into account all possibilities, the ministry said in a possible attempt to counter criticism that past exercises have veered on the performative. Troops in the drills will use Abrams M1A2T tanks and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System acquired from the US, Taiwan's closest partner and source of defensive arms despite the sides not having diplomatic ties at Beijing's insistence. The ministry called on the public to show patience with any disruptions to flights or traffic and not to believe false information distributed about the exercises. China responded to the exercises' announcement in a typically acerbic fashion. 'The Han Guang exercise is nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick by the DPP authorities, attempting to bind the Taiwanese people to the Taiwan independence cart and harm Taiwan for the selfish interests of one party,' Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Jiang Bing said at a news conference on Tuesday. The DPP stands for Taiwan's independence-leading ruling Democratic Progressive Party. 'No matter how they perform or what weapons they use, they cannot resist the PLA's anti-independence sword and the historical trend of the motherland's inevitable reunification,' Jiang said. China appears also to have taken actions to disrupt preparations for the drills, with the Taiwanese Defense Ministry saying PLA planes and ships on Tuesday conducted harassment operations around Taiwan's air and sea domains under the pretext of a so-called joint combat readiness patrol. 'Taiwan's armed forces employed joint intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance measures to closely monitor the situation and dispatched mission aircraft, vessels, and shore-based missile systems to appropriately respond,' the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said Tuesday. China imposed export controls Wednesday on eight enterprises tied to Taiwan's military. China has used such tactics before, including sanctioning American companies aiding Taiwan's burgeoning domestic defense industry. The aerospace and shipbuilding companies added to an export control list by China's Commerce Ministry include defense supplier Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, drone maker Jingwei Aerospace Technology Co., and CSBC Corporation, Taiwan's largest shipbuilding company. The new rules, effective immediately, prohibit the export to the companies listed of dual-use items, which can be used for both civilian and military purposes, the ministry said. A Taiwan Defense Ministry spokesman, Chiao Fu-chun, shrugged-off the action, saying the island's defense industries have excluded any Chinese-made parts in their supply chains and sought to have all manufacturing performed on the island. 'This Chinese ministry's action is in complete accordance with the policies of our (main arms developer),' Chiao said.
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Taiwan begins 10-day military drills to counter Chinese threats
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan on Wednesday launched annual military exercises intended to guard against Chinese threats to invade, including using so-called 'gray zone tactics' deployed by China that stop just short of open warfare. This year's 10-day live-fire Han Guang drills are the longest yet and follow the delivery of a range of new weaponry from tanks to unmanned waterborne drones. The drills in Taiwan come as regional tensions and harassment by China and its People's Liberation Army (PLA) are increasing. China claims Taiwan as its territory to be annexed by force if necessary, while the vast majority of Taiwanese wish to become fully independent or retain their current status of de-facto independence. The drills began with exercises to counter the actions of Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia ships that have been harassing Taiwanese ships around offshore island groups close to the Chinese coast, the Defense Ministry said. Concerns are that China could launch an invasion under the guise of petty harassment, and the drills will include fortifying ports and possible Chinese landing points on an island lying 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the Chinese coast. The drills will later focus on simulated anti-landing exercises, with regular forces from all the services backed up by 22,000 reservists, the ministry said. Exercises will continue around the clock for 10 days under realistic conditions taking into account all possibilities, the ministry said, in a possible attempt to counter criticisms that past exercises have veered on the performative. The ministry called on the public to show patience with any disruptions to flights or traffic and not to believe false information distributed about the exercises. China responded to the exercises' announcement in typically acerbic fashion. 'The Han Guang exercise is nothing but a bluffing and self-deceiving trick by the DPP authorities, attempting to bind the Taiwanese people to the Taiwan independence cart and harm Taiwan for the selfish interests of one party,' Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Jiang Bing said at a news conference on Tuesday. The DPP stands for Taiwan's independence-leading ruling Democratic Progressive Party. 'No matter how they perform or what weapons they use, they cannot resist the PLA's anti-independence sword and the historical trend of the motherland's inevitable reunification,' Jiang said. China appears also to have taken actions to disrupt preparations for the drills, with the Taiwanese Defense Ministry saying PLA planes and ships on Tuesday 'conducted harassment operations around Taiwan's air and sea domains under the pretext of a so-called 'joint combat readiness patrol.'' Taiwan's armed forces 'employed joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance measures to closely monitor the situation and dispatched mission aircraft, vessels, and shore-based missile systems to appropriately respond,' the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Bloomberg
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Lithuania Eyes Troops Visit Pact With Philippines, Slams China
Lithuania will consider a visiting forces agreement with the Philippines, as it builds security ties with the Southeast Asian nation while criticizing Beijing's actions in the South China Sea. The Baltic state aims to join in the annual flagship military exercises between the Philippines and the US, and an agreement on visiting forces may be needed so it can participate, Lithuania's Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told reporters on Wednesday as she wrapped up her trip to Manila.
