Australia hosts military drills with US and other nations, likely to draw Chinese surveillance

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The largest-ever war-fighting drills in Australia, Exercise Talisman Sabre, are underway and expected to attract the attention of Chinese spy ships.

Australia launched missiles from its M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, on Monday during live-fire exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, a 4,500 square kilometer (1,700 square mile) Outback expanse in Queensland state. The HIMARS launchers were recently bought from the United States.

"Today was the first time the Australian Army has live-fired our long-range, multi-domain platforms being the HIMARS, so it is a remarkable day," Brig. Nick Wilson told reporters.

Talisman Sabre began in 2005 as a biennial joint exercise between the United States and Australia.

This year, more than 35,000 military personnel from 19 nations, including Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom, will take part over three weeks, Australia’s defense department said.

Malaysia and Vietnam are also attending as observers.

The exercise will also take place in Papua New Guinea, Australia’s nearest neighbor. It is the first time Talisman Sabre activities have been held outside Australia.

Chinese surveillance ships have monitored naval exercises off the Australian coast during the last four Talisman Sabre exercises and were expected to surveil the current exercise, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.

“The Chinese military have observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it,” Conroy said.

“We’ll adjust accordingly. We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia, but we’ll also adjust how we conduct those exercises,” Conroy added.

Conroy said the Chinese were not yet shadowing ships as of Sunday.

The exercise officially started on Sunday with a ceremony in Sydney attended by Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific Lt. Gen. J.B. Vowell and Australia’s Chief of Joint Operations Vice-Adm. Justin Jones.

The exercise, showcasing Australia’s defense alliance with the United States, started a day after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese began a six-day visit to China, where he is expected to hold his fourth face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.

Albanese said Chinese surveillance of Talisman Sabre would not be an issue raised with Xi.

“That would be nothing unusual. That has happened in the past and I’ll continue to assert Australia’s national interest, as I do,” Albanese told reporters in Shanghai Monday.

Albanese also noted that while he had visited the United States as prime minister five times, he had only been to China twice.

The Australian leader has been criticized at home for failing to secure a face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I look forward to a constructive engagement with President Trump. We have had three constructive phone conversations,” Albanese said.

South Korean soldiers pose for a photo dduring Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Australia's largest-ever war fighting drills at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, near Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Rockets are launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Australia's largest-ever war fighting drills at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, near Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

An Australian Airforce F35 fighter jet participates in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Australia's largest-ever war fighting drills at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, near Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australian defence force drive their High Mobility Artillery Rocket System for firing during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Australia's largest-ever war fighting drills at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, near Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

South Korean soldiers fire from a K1 tank during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, Australia's largest-ever war fighting drills at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, near Rockhampton, Australia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)