Featured Image Credit: Global Images Ukraine/Getty
Topics: Military, US News, Australia, Vladimir Putin
Ella Scott
Topics: Military, US News, Australia, Vladimir Putin
The United States military and its allies have just completed a ‘high-speed test of fire-and-move tactics’ on a remote island in the Indian Ocean amid growing World War III fears.
This week, Kremlin spokesperson and military expert Captain Vasily Dandykin, accused European powers of mounting against Russia, sparking debate that WWIII could be on the horizon.
Captain Dandykin’s chilling comment came after US President Donald Trump admitted he was unhappy with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, claiming his country could face sanctions if it didn’t find peace with Ukraine.
Last week, the US military built on previous efforts to boost range, flexibility, and survivability when it came to deploying weaponry by working with allies to put soldiers on Christmas Island.
Advert
Christmas Island is an Australian external territory situated in the Indian Ocean. It’s here that a Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft landed with a US Army High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and a plethora of Australian soldiers on July 13.
The operation, dubbed Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, reportedly ‘demonstrated the ability of partner nations to rapidly deploy and employ land-based, long-range precision fires’, according to the Australian Government Ministry of Defense.
Business Insider reported that the HIMARS launcher, along with a supporting communications vehicle, was flown to a forward airfield before it was driven to a simulated strike location.
After the mission was completed on July 27, the Air Force C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft rapidly withdrew vehicles and soldiers from the strategic Australian territory.
The Australian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the task was a ‘key test’ for Project OPEROSE, ‘which aims to enhance targeting, target prosecution and sustained guided weapons logistics.’
Lieutenant Colonel Guelfi, who supervised the activity, said: “Collectively, we have rapidly deployed a HIMARS to demonstrate our ability to put combat power anywhere, at any time of our choosing.”
Defending Christmas Island’s usage, the Royal Australian Navy’s Commodore Peter Leavy, said: “Christmas Island is very strategically positioned in the Indian Ocean and we need to be able to operate here and to protect the territory and the Australian citizens that live here.”
Prior to Exercise Talisman Sabre, another live-fire joint exercise, this time between American and Filipino forces, took place in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, on June 30, 2025. You can see the result of the missile launch in the picture below.
The pair come almost a year after the United States Army deployed assets to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and ran a force projection exercise on Shemya Island.
The event, which took place in September 2024, is said to have demonstrated the ‘US Army Pacific's ability to move assets adeptly and with little notice into even the most remote locations’.
Much like the exercise on Christmas Island, a HIMARS platoon was delivered, as well as a target acquisition radar and an infantry security force from the 11th Airborne Division, and around 130 soldiers.
The Alaskan deployment came amid Russia's largest naval drills since the Cold War, which, according to Business Insider, stretched across the Pacific, Mediterranean Sea, and Arctic Ocean. Its overall purpose was to test combat readiness.
Earlier this month, the Russian defense ministry released footage from the Black Sea that captured naval drones, aerial drones, helicopters, and ships in action.
In a statement, Putin said: “The Navy's exercise is primarily designed to thoroughly train naval forces in repelling maritime attacks and performing the full range of extremely challenging and unconventional operational and tactical missions, and other tasks in a realistic simulated environment."