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US Stages ‘Historic’ Island Defense Drills Amid Growing China Threat.
The United States and two of its allies in the Indo-Pacific region are conducting a trilateral island defense drill, countering threats posed by China.
Exercise Yama Sakura 87, which means “mountain cherry blossom” in Japanese, kicked off on Friday and is scheduled to run for nine days. More than 7,000 military members from the U.S., Australia and Japan are participating in the drill in multiple locations across three allied nations.
This is the first time the Yama Sakura, an annual exercise in Japan that began in 1982, is being conducted concurrently with the U.S. Army’s command post exercise Warfighter, marking a “historic milestone” and validating joint operational capabilities across the Pacific theater, the U.S. military said.
Key highlights of the exercise included joint training in outlying island defense scenarios, with enhanced focus on expeditionary advanced base operations-referring to the use of mobile forces from austere, temporary locations ashore or inshore in a maritime area.
Under a U.S. defense concept, Japan, which has five main islands and 14,120 remote islands, forms a north-south blockade with Taiwan and the Philippines against China, seeking to leverage their territories to contain the Chinese military in the Pacific Ocean.
To the west of the blockade, commonly known as the first island chain, is the East China Sea, where the uninhabited, Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands, also known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, are claimed by Beijing. Japan is a treaty ally of Washington.
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Tokyo has been enhancing its island defense capabilities, including developing a stealthy missile capable of conducting long-range attacks to sink invading warships. China has the largest navy in the world by hull count, with more than 370 ships and submarines.
The first-ever full participation of a U.S. stand-in force within the first island chain, the U.S. Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force, highlighted the drill’s theme of island defense. The group was designed as a naval expeditionary force to fight from advanced naval bases.
The III Marine Expeditionary Force regularly trains with the Japanese army for “seamless integration” in support of regional stability, its commander, Lieutenant General Roger Turner, said in a statement on Friday. This U.S. force is deployed to Okinawa, part of Japan’s Southwest Islands.
Conducting the exercise with the U.S. and Australia is significant, said Lieutenant General Toshikazu Yamane, the Japanese ground component commander. “We can contribute to a free and open Indo-Pacific by enhancing deterrence and response capabilities,” he added.
The Australian military took part in the Yama Sakura for the second consecutive year. The drill “will further strengthen” Australia’s defense partnership with the U.S. and Japan, said Major General Ash Collingburn, the Australian army’s 1st Division commander.
This iteration of Yama Sakura is also set to focus on the integration of multi-domain operations across land, air, sea, space and cyber domains. Last week, the U.S. Space Force also set up its first unit in Japan, seeking to enhance the alliance’s defense and deterrence.
(bellingham herald)