Exercise Malabar joint naval drills begin off Sydney coast

[Vanguard One]

HMAS Brisbane will lead the visiting foreign naval vessels into Sydney Harbour.(Supplied: Department of Defence)

Visiting warships from India, Japan and the United States will be welcomed into Sydney Harbour on Friday as the annual "Exercise Malabar" military drills are hosted by Australia for the first time.

Key points:​

• Exercise Malabar involves four Indo-Pacific partner nations: Australia, India, Japan and the United States
• The 10-day exercise includes high-end warfare training with submarines and aircraft
• The activity is not in response to China's growing military presence in the region, said Commander Kingsley Scarce

HMAS Brisbane will lead the foreign naval vessels through Sydney heads to formally begin 10 days of high-end warfare training off the east coast, involving submarines and aircraft.

Exercise Malabar involves the four Indo-Pacific partner nations which form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or "Quad", and is routinely criticised by China.

Earlier this year Quad leaders were scheduled to meet in Sydney, but the high-level talks were postponed after US President Joe Biden was unable to travel to Australia.

In 2008 Australia withdrew from the military activity for over a decade but Defence Minister Richard Marles said it's an honour for this country to now host the large-scale naval exercise for the first time.

"Amid the current strategic circumstances, it is more important than ever we partner with our neighbours, and deepen our defence partnerships," he said.

"Cooperation, shared understanding and knowledge coupled with training contributes to shared security and prosperity for our region."
Ahead of the opening day of exercises, the ABC was invited on board HMAS Brisbane to observe the crew of the Air Warfare Destroyer conduct live firing drills off the coast during the day and at night.

The Commanding Officer of HMAS Brisbane, Commander Kingsley Scarce, insists Exercise Malabar is not in response to China's rapid military rise in the region.

HMAS Brisbane returned to Fleet Base East, Sydney on Tuesday 20 December 2022. The ship and its crew were deployed for two months, visiting overseas ports in New Caledonia and Hawaii as well as conducting Exercise Pacific Edge.(Department of Defence)
"We don't do anything focused on one particular country, so this for us is all about working on those levels of interoperability with the different nations," Commander Scarce said.

"For me personally my responsibility is to maximise the combat capability of this ship and that's what I do, and I use exercises like Malabar to make sure that we're ready to do whatever government needs us to do".

The Commander nominates language and cultural barriers as one of the biggest challenges in conducting the quadrilateral military exercise between all four nations.

"If I'm talking to some of my American colleagues and I say 'do you want to go for a brew' — I'm talking coffee, they're talking beer."
"I'm happy with both outcomes but it's very important that we understand the language that we're using and what we actually mean when we're talking to each other".

Exercise Malabar will run from August 11 to 22 and will include constabulary operations, air warfare activities, anti-submarine warfare, naval gun firing and anti-ship missile defence activities.

Posted Yesterday at 3:59am

Joint naval drills between US, Australia, India and Japan 'more important than ever'

Visiting warships from India, Japan and the United States will be welcomed into Sydney Harbour on Friday as the annual "Exercise Malabar" military drills are hosted by Australia for the first time.

www.abc.net.au