Weipa and Napranum to host Australian and US Army personnel in Exercise Talisman Sabre

The skies above Weipa and Napranum will be buzzing with the sound of Australian and US military aircraft and helicopters during Operation Talisman Sabre.

The skies above Weipa and Napranum will be buzzing with the sound of Australian and US military aircraft and helicopters at the end of July as RAAF Base Scherger is activated for Operation Talisman Sabre.

The towns will play a key role in the 10th and largest ever edition of the biennial training exercise that takes over much of North Queensland every July.

From mid-July, almost 1000 Australian Defence Force and United States military personnel will operate in the vicinity of Weipa and Napranum with the nearby dormant RAAF Base Scherger activated to support the significant force.

More than 30,000 military personnel will participate across Northern Australia and as far south as New South Wales from July 22 to August 4.

Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment are dropped into the RAAF Base Scherger training area by an Australian Army CH-47F Chinook helicopter from the 5th Aviation Regiment during Exercise Woomera Strike 2021. Photo: Defence Media

​Talisman Sabre exercise director, Brigadier Damian Hill, said the support of the Weipa community was vital to Defence achieving key training objectives with the United States.

​“Weipa and Napranum are an important training areas for us during Talisman Sabre 2023 because we get the twofold benefit of testing some American capabilities which help us move bulk liquids from offshore to RAAF Base Scherger, and standing up the base itself before the exercise begins,” Brigadier Hill said.

​In addition to Australia and the United States, Talisman Sabre 2023 will also include participants from Fiji, France, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.

India, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will attend as observer nations.

​“A significant part of Talisman Sabre this year is proving we can work with other nations to deliver large-scale logistics to support large conventional forces wherever needed and Weipa is a key location to meet that objective,” Mr Hill said.

​“I thank those in Weipa who have helped shape a safe and productive Talisman Sabre and I look forward to them seeing what we and our American allies can do as a combined force when the exercise gets under way in July.”

Originally published as Weipa and Napranum to host Australian and US Army personnel in Exercise Talisman Sabre