World War Three fears are continuing to intensify as the US has taken part in some of the ‘largest ever’ military drills.
The US joined Australia as it held its largest ever military training exercise, known as ‘Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025’.
This comes as fears for a potential third World War continue to grow.
The event took place at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, which is just off the coast of Queensland, and included 35,000 military personnel from 19 countries.
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The event was led by Vice Admiral Justin Jones, the chief of joint operations, who said: “Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 unites more than 35,000 military personnel from 19 nations and provides an unrivalled opportunity to train together across multiple domains. It demonstrates Australia’s enduring commitment to strengthening ties with trusted allies in support of a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific.
“Throughout the planning and execution, we’ve engaged with state authorities, traditional owners and stakeholders to ensure the exercise is safe, respectful, and productive for all involved.”
Countries that are taking part in the exercise include the US as well as the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Fiji, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Tonga.
Meanwhile, other countries attended to observe, including Malaysia and Vietnam.
Details of what will happen during the training is obviously confidential and not available to the public but it is known that it will include air combat simulations, live fire drills, cyber attacks, and amphibious landings.
It will also involve coordinated movements on the land as well as in the sea, air and space.
It is planned that the exercise will move away from the Queensland coast to the Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Christmas Island during the next three weeks.
After this, it will move to Papua New Guinea.
Speaking to reporters, Brigadier Nick Wilson said: “Today was the first time the Australian Army has live-fired our long-range, multi-domain platforms being the HIMARS, so it is a remarkable day.”
Chinese surveillance ships were found to be monitoring the exercises happening off the coast, according to Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy, however, this didn’t seem to concern the minister.
Conroy said: “The Chinese military has observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it.
“We’ll adjust accordingly. We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia, but we’ll also adjust how we conduct those exercises.”