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A RAAF P-8A Poseidon has participated in joint training exercises with a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) Kawasaki RC-2 aircraft.
The activity saw the two aircraft fly from air bases in Japan, sharing information through the tactical battlefield network as they would on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
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“We want ISR crews from Australia, Japan and the United States to be linked and exchanging data together,” said Australian Air Force Attaché in Japan Wing Commander Andrew Fisher.
“We conduct around one or two ground-based exchanges each year to build our relationships, with the most recent one at Kadena [in Okinawa] in October 2025.”
According to Defence, aircraft like the Poseidon and RC-2 carry “specially trained crew and powerful sensors, which collect information and build a detailed picture of their battlespace”.
“The tactical network can share that picture with other aircraft, ships and units in the battlespace, allowing other crews and commanders alike to make more informed decisions about their mission,” Defence said.
Wing Commander Fisher added that ground-based cooperation and airborne exchange activities are “essential to ensuring information can be shared on the network when it matters”.
“Most of the hard work is done in the lead-up to conducting the flight, ensuring that everyone is using the right network and can successfully join,” he said.
“If the preparation isn’t done beforehand through exchanges like this, then solving any problems in the air can be difficult, particularly in a bilateral or multilateral context.
“Demonstrating we can do it once is important to ensuring we can bring this cooperation to future exercises and operations between Australia, Japan and the United States.
“What we learn by connecting our P-8A to Japanese and American aircraft can then be used to inform how we apply this to other RAAF aircraft in the future.”
Defence ministers from Australia, Japan and the US last year pledged to increase their trilateral ISR cooperation.
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