The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) steams alongside the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) during an at-sea demonstration of the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method (TRAM) while underway in the Pacific Ocean Oct. 11, 2024. (Credit: USN/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Charlotte Dudenhoeffer)
MELBOURNE — Australia, Japan and the United States today signed an agreement to further enhance logistics interoperability among their maritime forces, marking the first time a trilateral logistics agreement has been established among the three nations.
The move is meant to enable naval vessels from the three countries to provide logistics support for each other with areas of cooperation including the reloading of missile systems and flexible refuelling.
The US Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and Royal Australian Navy already routinely collaborate on bilateral bases for logistics and other topics under a strategic dialogue framework that has been in place for several years, but this agreement formalizes and intensifies the arrangement, according to the US Navy announcement on the signing of this latest agreement.
US Navy Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Installations and Logistics Vice Admiral Jeff Jablon, JMSDF Director General of Logistics Department, Maritime Staff Office Rear Adm. Naoya Hoshi, and RAN Director General Logistics Commodore Catherine Rhodes took part in the signing ceremony aboard USS America (LHA-6) during a port visit in Brisbane, Australia, for the new agreement
“We have robust logistics partnerships with Japan and Australia to ensure we can provide the right material and services at the right place, at the right time to mutually support our maritime forces, from day-to-day training during peacetime through contingencies,” Jablon said. “This arrangement strengthens those commitments and allows us to more easily share information, technologies and processes for greater logistics resiliency.”
Naval vessels from all three countries already routinely refuel partner nation vessels while participating in combined joint exercises and other cooperative engagements. Australian and US naval forces have supported missile reloading for each other’s warships in the Indo-Pacific region since 2019.
US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is developing prototype systems that are compatible with both existing US and partner nation warships’ Mk-41 missile launchers and can be used to transfer missile canisters between ships in elevated sea states.
The system will enhance the capability of ships to reload their missiles rapidly at sea and has been demonstrated in 2024 with further demonstrations planned in 2025 and 2026 to showcase additional capability and interoperability, according to the US Navy.
USS America is currently in Australia to take part in Exercise Talisman Sabre, a multinational, multidomain exercise involving 19 different countries, which the RAN’s Rhodes said includes opportunities to work trilaterally with the U.S. and Japan on logistics initiatives.
“These efforts facilitate our speed of response for the full range of naval actions in the Indo-Pacific, from routine sustainment through crisis,” he said.
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Author: Mike Yeo
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