A Multidomain Talisman Sabre military exercise in a large scale that included US Intelligence aircraft and Singaporean military was conducted for the first time in Australia. Codenamed Talisman Sabre brings together more than 35,000 military personnel from the militaries of 19 nations.
Northern and Eastern Australia has been hosting a large- scale multinational and multidomain military aircraft exercise and for the first time that includes US’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) from 13 July for three weeks.
The exercise brings in countries like the US, Japan, the United Kingdom and including the host Australia training together on land, airspace and waters around Australia, according to a news release from the US Embassy in Australia.
Welcome to Ex Talisman Sabre!🇬🇧🇦🇺@DefenceHQ forces are training hard across land, sea, air & cyber —shoulder to shoulder with our @DefenceAust allies & 17 more partner nations.💪
Boots down. Jets up. Systems live.@TalismanSabre is a go.🎬#TalismanSabre2025 #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/Byy59rEtzU
— Defence Operations 🇬🇧 (@DefenceOps) July 19, 2025
This edition is the first time in the biennial exercise that US Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint from the 55th Wing, normally at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and a US Navy P-8A Poseidon fitted with specialized ISR and communications suites have participated.
According to the Naval Air Systems Command, the AAS is an integrated ISR and targeting system with the additional capability of Mast and Periscope Detection for detecting submarines, while the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) describes MUOS is a narrowband, beyond line-of-sight system that can provide “10 times the throughput capacity of current narrowband SATCOM”.
Both aircraft would bring exceptional Signals Intelligence and Electronic Intelligence gathering capabilities, said Justin Bronk, the Senior Research Fellow for Airpower and Technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London, reports Breaking Defense.
The presence of Singaporean special forces was stated to be noteworthy by Euan Graham, Senior Analyst on Defence Strategy at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who said, “Singapore has advanced military capabilities that no other partner in Southeast Asia comes close to, so for them to take part in Talisman Sabre is an opportunity for them to drill as part of a large coalition force, and at the more complex end of the activity spectrum.”
