Australia’s Department of Defence has announced that it will resume international training with foreign military partners in 2021.

The Australian Army and Indonesian Army, Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Darat completed the latest edition of Exercise Wirra Jaya in a virtual format to overcome travel restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19.

Fleet Synthetic Training – Joint 20/72, a virtual trilateral naval warfare exercise held this month, featured participation from the USA, Canada and Australia.

Group Editor Marty Kauchak provides a high-level glimpse of rapidly evolving defense S&T trends and programs in Asia.

Asian military services are using learning technologies to strengthen their readiness levels across their mission sets. At one end of the spectrum, new training and education systems are supporting the introduction of the fifth-generation F-35A to the Royal Australian Air Force. At the same time, regional defense forces are using wargame-like solutions to allow their units and staffs to prepare for tasks in and beyond warfighting domains. Further to these trends, the overarching, major development to which simulation and training (S&T) companies, beyond and from the region, are responding is the expanding, insatiable demand for products and services by diverse Asian customers – hardware OEMs, defense departments and other government organizations, and others. This feature article selectively reviews developments in the Asian Pacific S&T defense market space through the regional portfolios of four industry companies.

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The Royal Australian Navy has completed Exercise Cuttlefish 2020, which provided participating Minehunters HMAS Gascoyne, Huon and Yarra, with realistic mine clearance training.

A new Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul facility for the Australian F-35 flight simulators’ ProSim projectors will provide regional support for the devices.

Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) CH-47 helicopter crews have obtained deck landing qualifications to the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) largest vessels, HMAS Adelaide and Canberra.

The Australian Army has completed its assistance to the Afghan National Army Officer Academy, ending a seven-year deployment of Australian troops to train Afghan Army officers.

The Royal Australian Air Force continues to maintain a presence at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, that has enabled them to continue joint training on the F-35A Lightning II, with the US Air Force.

The Australian Ministry of Defence has awarded a three-year, AU$7.5 million contract to Cirrus Real Time Processing Systems.