Chinese Warship Spies On ‘Largest-Ever’ US-Australia Military Drills

ANALYSIS – The military alliance between the United States and Australia is deepening daily. The latest example of that strengthened relationship is the Talisman Sabre training exercise between the U.S. military and Australian Defense Force.

The 10^th and latest exercise, billed as the largest one ever, launched on July 22 in northern Australia and is scheduled to end on August 4. And it doesn’t just include the U.S. and Australia – more than 30,000 troops from 13 nations are also participating. (RELATED: Australian Experts Contradict US Counterparts On China, Say US Can’t Win Taiwan War)

Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States are full participants.

The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are attending as observers.

The drill is massive, and it’s specifically aimed at communist China.

That’s why this type of large-scale drill inevitably gets the attention of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). A PLAN surveillance ship has been spotted off the eastern coast of Australia, monitoring the exercise.

The warship is expected to move south, tailing the naval maneuvers.

But this isn’t unusual. PLAN surveillance ships have been monitoring Talisman Sabre exercises since 2017. And no one appears particularly worried.

According to the Australian Ministry of Defense website, Lt. Gen. Greg Bilton, the Chief of Joint Operations of the Australian Defense Force (ADF), when asked during a press conference if Chinese spy ships would be a “danger” and if they “worried” him, replied:

They’ve come before and… there’s one off the east coast of Australia at the moment. We reached out on Thursday and hailed that vessel in the Coral Sea. It’ll move down, I expect, and join the exercise – or be in the location of the exercise again. They’ve done this for several years; we’re well prepared for it.

More to the point, when asked what China may gain from observing the drill, U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said, according to Fox News: “The most important thing that Beijing can take is that (the U.S. and its allies) are extremely tied by the core values that exist among our many nations together.” (RELATED: Communist Country Using Cover Story To ‘Temporarily’ Occupy New Territory)

“We are prepared to operate together in defense of our national security interests and in defense of the core values that we all share,” he added.

And the strength of the growing anti-China coalition is clearly visible in this Talisman Sabre.

As Eurasian Times reported:

A complete list of participating ships has yet to be officially released for Talisman Sabre. However, the United States sent the America Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), which consists of amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6) and landing platform docks USS New Orleans (LPD-18) and USS Green Bay (LPD-20) and the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).

Japan is dispatching destroyer helicopter carrier JS Izumo (DDH-183) and landing ship tank JS Shimokita (LST-4002) as part of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Indo-Pacific Deployment 2023 (IPD23) mission.

Royal Australian Navy (RAN) amphibious assault ship HMAS Adelaide (L01) is participating in the exercise, although Australia has yet to release any information on other RAN ships participating. Adelaide recently embarked British Royal Marine Commandos on it for the exercise, according to a report in USNI News.

This series of exercises test the logistics of U.S. and allied military operations across wide swathes of the western Pacific, long noted as critical and vulnerable in a war with China. 

And that war is coming sooner rather than later. (RELATED: Foreign Gangsters Caught Invading Our Nation)

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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