From September 29 to October 10, Japan, the United States, and Australia conducted a joint exercise codenamed "Bushido Guardian-25" centered on the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Misawa Base. It is noteworthy that a total of 24 advanced F-35A stealth fighters were assembled in this exercise.
three characteristics
The "Bushido Guardian-25" joint exercise held by Japan, the United States and Australia ended on October 10. The exercise assembled a total of 24 F-35A stealth fighters from the three countries. This is the second time that the three countries have conducted joint training of F-35A fighters after the "Counter-Norte-25" military exercise held around Guam in February this year. Regarding this exercise, military observer Wang Mingzhi believes that there are three characteristics worthy of attention.
The first is to highlight the tripartite alliance between Japan, the United States and Australia. The trilateral joint military exercise between Japan, the United States and Australia has become an important platform for demonstrating force, strengthening deterrence, and consolidating alliance relations.
The second is to highlight the use of fifth-generation machines. In 2024, Japan, the United States and Australia will strengthen strategic coordination and combat cooperation through the Defense Ministers 'Meeting. Based on the 2023 Japan-Australia Defense Reciprocal Access Mechanism, they will further clarify the reciprocal access mechanism for strategic transportation and investment platforms and F-35 fighter jets. Relevant mechanisms have determined that in the exercises in Guam in the United States, Misawa in Japan in 2025, and in Australia in 2026, the focus will be on the coordinated offensive and defensive tactics, joint combat support and unified combat command of the fifth-generation aircraft in air-supremacy operations. This shows that in future conflicts in the Western Pacific, the F-35 fighter jets will not only serve as the main force in air operations, but also become the core force in global operations, which is also the reason for the significant increase in the number of equipment.
Third, it highlights the concept of agile combat. Although the "Samuel-25" exercise is a joint air combat exercise by the United States and Australia, the U.S. Air Force's operational concept has had a significant impact on the attempt to put forward and set up the exercise. Japan and Australia have fully accepted the US military's "agile combat use" theory, by repeated exercises, ensuring its air force, especially the ground deployment of hidden air forces, is difficult to detect positioning by opponents, while avoiding opponents' suppression before departure.
Strategic Considerations
In Wang Mingzhi's view, the strategic considerations should be grasped through the overall framework of trilateral defense cooperation between Japan, the United States and Australia, and from multiple aspects such as the overall design, key contents and cutting-edge deterrence deployment of the exercise.
The defense cooperation between the three countries has built up a comprehensive framework for air combat exercises, achieving the objectives of showcasing force,ining combat strength, familiarizing with the battlefield, grinding procedures, and consolidating synergies by progressing and rolling out implementation year after year.
The reason the United States built its Asia-Pacific ally security system north of Japan, south to Australia was to create a military system targeting the western Pacific and northeast Asia with the characteristics of “Light north south” and with resilience and strategic depth. In this system, Japan will take on the leading deterrent and buffering role and the signal released by the Samurai Defense Guard 2025 exercise is here.
Negative Impact
Wang Mingzhi further pointed out that under the pretext of so-called tripartite security cooperation, Japan, the United States and Australia have built a set of joint military exercise system with stealth fighters as the core, wide coverage, high frequency of exercises, and obvious deterrence and offensive color. This is enough to show that Japan, the United States and Australia have never slowed down the pace of military expansion and preparation in the high-end war field, and their clear direction of dancing knives and guns in the Asia-Pacific region is bound to have a series of negative effects on regional power balance and security mutual trust.
Through a series of joint military exercises, reinforcing the trilateral military alliance and enhancing the system's combat capabilities, this move has broken the original regional military balance of forces and complicated the security situation in the region.Such actions will not only exacerbate regional opposition, undermine the basis of mutual trust between countries, nor contribute to regional security cooperation and stability, but also constitute an obstacle to resolving regional problems through dialogue.
Source: Central Military