Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-35As will again deploy to Japan next year to take part in Exercise Bushido Guardian alongside F-35As from the United States Air Force (USAF). The deployment, announced as part of the 4 May Australia-United States-Japan Defence Ministers Meeting (TDMM) is one of three major trilateral F-35A training exercises planned for the next two years in all three countries alongside Exercise Cope North 2024 in Guam and Exercise Pitch Black 2026 in Australia.
During the meeting, the three countries also agreed to continue collaboration towards a networked air and missile defence architecture for the Indo-Pacific region, incorporating improved missile defence information sharing and as well as coordinating the introduction of future capabilities among the three countries.
The air and missile defence initiative will be operationalised as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2027, which will bring together units and capabilities from across the US Department of Defence, Australian Defence Force (ADF), and Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) to conduct a regional air and missile defence live fire exercise.
In the shorter-term, air and missile defence cooperation will be boosted through more regular and more complex Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) cooperation among the three countries.
In recent years this cooperation has expanded in its scope and complexity, with the three countries having previously completed combined ISR operations in the maritime and air domains.
JSDF asset protection missions - a legal mechanism which allows Japanese military assets to protect Australian and American forces deployed around Japan - will also be expanded and "normalised," according to the Ministers.
The missions, which are enabled by Japan's 2014 Peace and Security Legislation, will also grow in scope to include other partners, though they have not been named. Initially, the laws only covered operations with the US; however, in 2021 they were expanded to include Australia.
On the sidelines of the meeting the three countries also signed a new trilateral Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) Projects Arrangement which the Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, said would see "much greater collaboration between our countries in relation to defence science and technology."
The full statement can be found here.