Maritime forces from the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF), the Royal New Zealand Navy, the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), the US Navy and the US Marine Corps begin multilateral maritime exercise Pacific Vanguard 2025 with an opening ceremony on Monday, August 25.
The cooperative exercise brings together service members from five Indo-Pacific nations to enhance their skills in maritime operations, anti-submarine warfare, air warfare, and advanced manoeuvring scenarios to improve overall interoperability between the forces.
This year’s Pacific Vanguard features greater participation from other nations and joint forces compared to last year’s iteration, the US Navy said in a press release.
Additionally, the exercise provides personnel from the five nations’ forces ashore opportunities to build shared multi-domain awareness and develop relationships that will help streamline combined operations in response to any crisis.
Participating assets include the RAAF’s P-8A Poseidon aircraft, the JMSDF Hyuga-class helicopter carrier JS Ise, the Mashu-class replenishment ship JS Omi, the Takanami-class destroyer JS Suzunami, the ROKN Chungmugong Sun-Sin-class destroyer ROKS Wang Geon, the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Higgins, the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Richard E. Byrd and P-8A Poseidon aircraft.