Exercise Talisman Sabre showing first hand how crucial space operations are

The ADF has revealed the key role space will play in a multi-country exercise designed to prepare militaries for war.

Space isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think of the Australian Defence Force, but it plays a key role in the country’s military capabilities.

Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh got a peak behind the scenes with the Space Surveillance Unit’s Joint Commercial Operations Pacific Cell, which gives the ADF up-to-date information about their environment.

Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh said space is a rapidly evolving and critical operational domain. Picture: Josh Mercer

The Minister said by looking at the data that the JCO is able to obtain, it can inform soldiers about anything from weather to key information about operations.

Flight Lieutenant Kaylee Verrier is the Space International Exercise Planner for the Townsville portion of Talisman Sabre.

Flight Lieutenant Verrier is developing a space integration into the Talisman Sabre exercise that all nations involved can use. Partner nations include New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and India.

“So what we’ve done here is I’ve brought in our JCO because they use commercial data which is unclassified and that allows us to present the space operations in a manner that is open for all participants to come,” Flight Lieutenant Verrier said.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh being shown the space operations by Flight Lieutenant Kaylee Verrier during Exercise Talisman Sabre. Picture: Josh Mercer

“So we have eight part nations with us here doing those operations and they’re providing training and education of what space operations are.”

Flight Lieutenant Verrier said this was the first iteration of Talisman Sabre ever they’ve had the opportunity to bring space operations in.

“So it’s the first time that we’ve had to actually bring in all our partner nations in and show them a bit about what we do, so it’s been a fantastic opportunity for us,” he said.

Minister Keogh said that the national defence strategy, which came out of the federal government’s defence strategic review, highlighted the importance of making an additional investment and engagement into space and building the capabilities and workforce.

And with space being an evolving area, Mr Keogh said it demands highly specialised roles which would include satellite communications, space domain awareness, and missile warnings.

“It’ll mean that we’ll be moving away from a situation where at the moment, we’ve got people coming from army, navy, air force into space operations, there will soon be direct recruitment roles coming from air force,” he said.

“Where people will be able to join the defence force to become a space operator, whether it’s around satellite operations, whether it’s around intelligence and reconnaissance using our space domain.”

Originally published as Exercise Talisman Sabre showing first hand how crucial space operations are