Exercise Talisman Sabre

Talisman Sabre 2005 was the inaugural exercise in this series, conducted 12–27 June 2005, in Shoalwater Bay, Rockhampton, Townsville, and the Coral Sea, with 16,000 US and Australian troops.

A focal point of the exercises was a joint amphibious landing that involved the launch of more than 2,500 personnel from six ships early on 20 June.

The exercise was led by the United States and was conducted primarily at Shoalwater Bay and the Townsville Field Training Area.

Alongside the USS Bonhomme Richard, 20 other ships and over 200 aircraft took part in what was the countries' largest exercise to date.

[20] Talisman Sabre 2019 began in July 2019, with more than 34,000 personnel participating from 18 countries, including Australia, United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

Once again, the Chinese Navy sent a Type 815G Dongdiao-class ship, the Tianwangxing (Uranus), to monitor the exercise, and there was speculation that China had a "keen interest" in how Japan's vessels interacted with and operated alongside the ADF and the US forces.

For what was believed to be also the first time, the Chinese Navy deployed two Type 815 spy ships to observe the exercise: the Tianwangxing and her younger sister the Haiwangxing (Neptune).

More than 30,000 personnel from 13 nations took part, including from Fiji, France, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.

[31][32] In the leadup to the exercise a truck carrying an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank crashed on the Bruce Highway in Queensland.

There have been concerns that depleted uranium munitions, which have been linked to increased incidence of cancer[citation needed], posing significant health risks, have been used at the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area during Exercise Talisman Sabre.