U.S. Army Prepositions Supplies in Australia

Talisman Sabre exercise to test new logistics capabilities.

The U.S. Army is set to evaluate its ability to strategically position equipment and supplies in advance within the Pacific region. The test will occur in Australia during Exercise Talisman Sabre, commencing this month, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific Command.

Joint Theater Sustainment Distribution Centers

As the U.S. military prepares for the complexities of sustaining potential extended operations in the Pacific, efforts are underway to establish what are called Joint Theater Sustainment Distribution Centers. The Army is taking the lead in establishing several of these key locations designed to house equipment and various supplies.

“We are responsible for setting the theater for the joint force,” Clark told Defense News in a June 27 interview. “The way that we’ve undertaken that strategically is to build joint interior line through Joint Theater Distribution Centers that we’re establishing across the Pacific.”

To date, the Army has established one center in the Philippines and another in Australia. Other military branches are responsible for creating additional centers throughout the first and second island chains in the Pacific, which are critical archipelagos stretching from Japan through Taiwan and down to Borneo in the south Pacific.

Talisman Sabre Drills

One such JTDC is being established in Townsville, Australia, located just north of the Gold Coast on the eastern coast. During Talisman Sabre, the Army will refine its concept for this center, as well as other logistics and sustainment capabilities it anticipates needing in a high-threat environment.

The biennial exercise will involve approximately 35,000 soldiers from 19 countries. According to the Australian Department of Defence, Talisman Sabre 2025 will focus on high-end warfighting and maritime capabilities, with a combined amphibious landing and air assault operations.

“This gives us a great opportunity to test some of the capability associated with that because we have to move personnel and materiel into Australia. The tyranny of distance, of which you’re well aware of, requires that,” Clark said.

Strategic Importance of Island Chains

According to Clark, having JTDCs “in and near the first island chain is exceptionally important for us and to be able to work through some of those challenges in the concept, in peacetime, as we’re working through contested logistics. We’re building those concepts and building those capabilities with the Australians side-by-side to facilitate setting the theater.”

The locations throughout the theater will vary in size and scope, “but the things that will be universal,” Clark said, “is, one, you’re going to have to have a port capability to move surface vessels with large amounts of material.”

“Two, they’re going to have to have storage capability for our efforts that store classes of supply. Three, they’re going to have to have some sort of airfield and air capability so we can move quickly materiel, supplies, from one place to another in rapid fashion.”

The centers “will allow us to essentially cheat the requirement for strategic air because, should there be crisis or conflict, the ability to use strategic lift to get into position will be highly contested by ourselves,” Clark said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event June 27.

“Our efforts to get Army prepositioned stocks on the ground in multiple locations where we can draw and then move inter-theater to a place of need is essential.”

Talisman Sabre will also assess other capabilities designed for contested logistics, such as Army watercraft concepts, as the service refines that strategy. The exercise will also feature the first live-fire test of the Army’s Typhon, or Mid-Range Capability missile, in the Pacific theater.