Amphibious assault ship USS America steams alongside the Royal Australian Navy’s helicopter dock ship HMAS Canberra during Large Scale Global Exercise 21 manoeuvres.
Australia has banded together with other nations in an “unprecedented”
move never seen before – and China definitely won’t like it.
The US has responded to China’s escalating chain of combat exercises. But it’s taking it several steps further. It’s conducting a global conflict drill. And Australia’s leading the charge in its simulated Pacific battleground.
“It’s a global scenario, it’s a worldwide scenario, and it builds up, and then we end up in some sort of a crisis or in some sort of a fight,” event director USN Rear Admiral Douglas Beal said. “Then we’ll call a stop to it and figure out what we’ve learned.”
It’s unimaginatively – but informatively – called Large Scale Global Exercise 2021 (LSGE21).
The worldwide event began in the first week of August. It ends on August 27.
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The Amphibious assault ship USS America is seen beyond the Royal Australian Navy’s helicopter dock ship HMAS Canberra during Large Scale Global Exercise 21.
It involves US army, air force, navy and marine units, and forces from Australia, the UK and Japan. And the drama’s unfolding in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Black Sea.
Precisely what it’s designed to do remains an operational secret.
Global scale
The war games are being billed as the largest since the 1980s.
We know the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its abnormally large and powerful task force has arrived in the vicinity of Hawaii.
We know Australian warships HMAS Canberra and HMAS Ballarat are somewhere in the Western Pacific. And Britain’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is near Guam.
“Right now, we’re exercising combat scenarios across the entire maritime of the globe,” US 3rd Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Steve Koehler told media on Wednesday. The simulated fight is being synchronised across 17 time zones.
He says the scope of the event is unprecedented.
“I’ve got to be careful, specifically, of the actual assets and where they are,” Vice Admiral Koehler said.
“But I would tell you that this exercise takes not only the live forces that are currently under way and currently deployed. There are ‘synthetic forces’ that are simulated in all of the scenarios that are combined.”
The specific combat challenges ships, aircrew, logistics and command staff must face have not been revealed. Nor has all the particular locations in which these are taking place.
But the sheer scale of the event will undoubtedly put to the test the West’s ability to synchronise its operations across a wide variety of fleets, nations and oceans.
What we know is the event will stress-test new operational concepts. Not to mention communications, sensor and logistics networks.
It’s also designed to challenge decades-old tactical and strategic thinking. Mostly, it’s hoped to expose unexpected weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Stress test
Large Scale Global Exercise 2021 didn’t start with a bang. Instead, the Pentagon has revealed it involves an escalation process where a tense scenario becomes an international crisis before resulting in a shooting war.
Retired admirals and officers have been drafted to play the opposition. Others will act as Pentagon, government and community leaders.
Operational commanders will have to contend with all of them.
And then there will be the chaos of “information warfare” – whether it be old-fashioned jamming of transmissions or modern hacking and deception techniques.
And the simulation network means the war games will be minimally scripted.
Whether they are in the Pacific, Atlantic or the Black Sea, every commander will have to assess what the unfolding scenarios mean, and how best to respond with what forces they have at hand.
If a single sailor presses the wrong button in response to an unfolding attack, the aircraft carrier or assault ship they are supposed to protect can be “sunk”. And that could change the direction of the entire event.
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Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat escorts the assault ships USS New Orleans, USS America and HMAS Canberra.
The US Navy’s 3rd Fleet headquarters had to move into tents in Hawaii in the space of just three days this week. It was a test of adaptability and survivability.
“I’ve brought the entire headquarters function here,” Admiral Koehler said. “We go where the fight takes us, and we maintain the warfighting advantage through our ability to solve problems and innovate in the middle of that fight.”
Small cogs …
“We have just completed some extraordinary training in and around Australia, and now we have this exciting new opportunity to consolidate those gains,” Australia’s Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Greg Bilton said in a statement.
“We’ve got amphibious forces, including United States marines, embarked in Canberra, and a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft involved at various stages as well.”
The Australian component is active in the “Western Pacific”. No specific location has been given.
“This was a counter-attack-style exercise between the JMSDF (Japan), the US Navy and the Royal Australian Navy,” the US Pacific Command details. This “included practical, high-end situational training such as smooth communication in joint combat and joint anti-surface attacks”.
This particular task force is commanded by the Japanese destroyer JS Makinami.
“Being able to come together and work from the same playbook under Makinami’s direction … was very rewarding. It proves that training together does prepare us to respond as partners in support of our shared goal of stability in the region,” Australian Commodore Michael Harris said in the US statement.
Participants in Large Scale Global Exercise 2021.
… Big wheels
LSGE21 involves far more than just simulated shooting. It’s about everything leading up to, and following on, from such acts. And that includes politics, public reactions, communications and disinformation.
Some 36 combat vessels are involved, as are hundreds of aircraft and 25,000 personnel.
But an extra 50 or so “virtual” and unlimited “constructive” units can be networked into the mix.
“Virtual” units include combat pilots, and even ship’s command crews, sitting in simulators.
“Constructive” units are entirely computer-generated and controlled by “battle labs” to add depth to scenarios.
In the past, simulating scale was a problem.
Every single missile or enemy aircraft needed an actual jet to carry signal pods mimicking hostile signatures. Now, modern high-speed, massed missile attacks can be generated – and shared – digitally.
“Certainly in the last five years, [that technology has] grown to allow us to stimulate those conditions,” US Fleet Forces Command Vice Admiral Jim Kilby said. “We think we need to because of what we think the adversary will do. [And] that would be very expensive for us to do in a live manner.”
Large Scale Global Exercise 2021 is just the first event.
New scenarios will be run every three years, drawing on allied forces from around the world.