Australia, Partner Nations Project Air Power in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025

Australia and partner nations participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, showcased their ability to project airpower with a total of 279 aircraft, flying over 5500 flight hours and 2000 sorties (peaking at 200 sorties daily), over a two-week period.

TS 2025 concluded on July 27 bringing together over 40,000 personnel from 19 nations.

The 11th iteration of the biennial large-scale military exercises took place across Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, New South Wales, Christmas Island and, for the first time, Papua New Guinea.

The participating forces trained on a wide range of complex missions including integrated air and missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, multi-domain strike operations, base response drills, force projection, and distributed logistics and mobility.

In a Defence release, Commander Air Task Group 640.7 Air Commodore Louise desJardins said Talisman Sabre was not just about flying aircraft. “Talisman Sabre gave us a chance to train in a high-end, realistic environment where we tested our skills, teamwork and technology under pressure.” He added, “It was a powerful demonstration of how Air Force contributes to Australia’s defence – by projecting air power as part of an integrated force – alongside our international partners and colleagues in the land, sea, cyber and space domains.”

The participating forces also undertook key airbase operations from austere environments, including air traffic control, medical support, air base command and integrated security protection with the Australian Army.

Talisman Sabre is the largest Australia-US bilaterally planned, multilaterally conducted exercise with partner nations, including Canada, France, Fiji, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and the United Kingdom.

The Australian aircraft involved in the exercises included the F-35A Lightning II, P-8A Poseidon, C-17A Globemaster III, C-130J Hercules and C-27J Spartan, with air battle management coordinated between the RAAF’s 3 Control and Reporting Unit, 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit and 2 Squadron’s E-7A Wedgetail.