Chinese spy ship rattles military exercise Talisman Sabre amid launch

The kick off of military exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 has been rocked by the arrival of an uninvited Chinese ship. See what it means.

Australia’s Talisman Sabre 2023 has been rattled by a Chinese spy ship that entered the Coral Sea as the military exercise officially kicked off on Friday.

The PLA (Navy) vessel, believed to be a Type 815 Dongdiao-class Auxiliary General Intelligence (AGI) ship, is one of two suspected to have been deployed to the Australian Defence Force-led military exercise.

Chief Joint Operations Lt General Greg Bilton confirmed one the uninvited guests appeared off the Queensland coast in the Coral Sea on Thursday and was “hailed” by the Australian Navy.

Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 is being conducted across Northern Australia from late July until August 4.

“It’ll move down (the east coast) I expect, to join the exercise or be in the location of the exercise again, they’ve done this for a number of years, we’re well prepared for it,” he said on Friday, speaking aboard HMAS Canberra in Sydney Harbour for the official Talisman launch.

“They were courteous and in accordance with the norms at sea.”

Lieutenant General Greg Bilton speaks at a press conference on board HMAS Canberra in Sydney before the opening ceremony Exercise Talisman Sabre. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Talisman Sabre 23, unlike previous iterations of the biennial exercise, will see more foreign allies testing more new equipment and armaments such as the Japanese Self Defense Forces’ advanced land-based anti-ship missile, the Type 12 Surface-to-Ship (SSM) rocket.

Known colloquially as the ship killer, it has a range of between 200 km and 1000 km.

The truck-launched missile will be fired about Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast, but it is some of the other armies and navies on operation about Shoalwater Bay in Queensland suspected to be of particular interest to the Chinese spy ship.

More than 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations will directly participate in Talisman Sabre 2023.

It is expected to remain outside Australian territorial waters but inside Australian Exclusive Economic Zone waters, with its array of sensors in effect hoovering up intelligence of live firing capabilities as well as speed and movement of ships and aircraft.

In its rhetoric, Beijing had already accused the Talisman exercise of promoting the sort of Asian style NATO bloc it has previously accused the US, Japan and Australia of trying to create in the Indo Pacific.

Gen Bilton said the ADF had not reached out to Beijing over the exercise but didn’t feel the need to at this time.

“The exercise is about us, it’s about our partner nations building interoperability, being able to build trust and an ability to respond together to whatever crisis might exist in our region in the future. So we’re entirely focused, frankly, on our alliances and our partnerships and building much better levels of capability.”

A Chinese vessel sailing off the northwest shelf of Australia.

Visiting Australia for the exercise, US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro also said these types of exercises were not about sending China any message but simply working with allies to ensure interoperability.

He said if anything, the important message to China was allies and partners working together with core values and being “prepared to actually operate together in defence of our national security interests”.

Talisman involves more than 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the exercise will see impressive co-ordinated operations to allow troops to test their skills.

“Talisman Sabre is a practical demonstration of our commitment to working with our international partners to maintain the security and stability of our region,” he said.