“Our adversaries are watching,” Maj. Gen. Dave Womack the commander of U.S. Army Japan said last month during the Orient Shield 23 training exercise held in Hokkaido between the U.S. and Japanese militaries. “They're watching our alliance. They are watching what we are doing to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific and it matters.”
Orient Shield 23 was a 10-day training exercise that ended on Sept. 23 and saw the U.S. military and the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces (JGSDF) training together on the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, anti-tank missiles, mortars, and aviation and infantry maneuvers, medical training, logistical transport, and an emphasis on electronic and cyber warfare.
Tellingly, the exercise was designed to promote interoperability between the Japanese and American forces in order to facilitate, "the reception, staging, onward-movement, and integration of U.S. forces deploying to Japan."
The statement alludes to American military forces flooding into the Pacific theater in response to an emergency in order to stage for and forward deploy to other areas in the region, most likely the Korean peninsula or China.
About 3,500 troops participated in the exercise, which has been held since 1982, and paves the way for the larger and more complex Yama Sakura exercise slated to be held this December.
“It is a great way to develop a relationship of trust between the Japan and U.S. land forces leadership and to obtain the idea for future defense cooperation," explained Gen. Yasunori Morishita of the JGSDF.
