Aircraft carriers from the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy have been sailing side by side in the Timor Sea as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025.
The two huge ships, plus air assets, and a host of destroyers, frigates and other support vessels have been linking up for operations in the waters between Australia and Indonesia.
HMS Prince of Wales is leading the U.K. Carrier Strike Group on Operation Highmast, its eight-month Indo-Pacific deployment. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington leads her own strike group as part of U.S. 7th Fleet. She is the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier.
The ongoing Talisman Sabre 2025 exercise began on July 13 and runs until August 4. The bilateral U.S.-Australian multi-domain exercise is in its 11th iteration. The largest such exercise staged to date, it will this year involve 19 nations and around 35,000 military personnel.
As per Defence Australia, most of the activities will be in Queensland but selected events are also being staged in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales. In addition, offshore elements are also being conducted in Papua New Guinea for the first time.
Talisman Sabre 2025 will include a series of live-fire exercises and field training, incorporating amphibious landings, land manoeuvres, and air combat and maritime operations.
Alongside the two carriers, the full list of other vessels in the double strike-group formation was as follows: Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls; Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup; Daring-class air-defence destroyer HMS Dauntless; Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tide-class tanker RFA Tidespring; Royal Australian Navy Hobart-class air warfare destroyer HMAS Sydney; Royal Norwegian Navy Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen; and Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec.
- You can read more details on the Royal Navy website and on the U.S. Navy website