ROCKHAMPTON, Australia — Long-range fires featured prominently at Exercise Talisman Sabre, the largest war games of their kind ever held in Australia.

Various anti-ship missile firings demonstrated the ability of the U.S. and its allies to hit maritime targets from land-based launchers.

If current tensions between China and Taiwan ever boil over into war, dispersed and mobile anti-ship missiles situated near strategic maritime straits could contain China within the so-called First Island Chain, which stretches southward from the Japanese archipelago down through Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.

This massive exercise in Australia, held from July 13-27, was marked by a number of firsts from Australia, Japan and the United States, as crews aboard HIMARS, Type 12 and Typhon launchers executed their respective fire missions.

The first full day of the exercise kicked off with plumes of rocket engine smoke as HIMARS from three nations – Australia, Singapore and the U.S. – launched GMLRS munitions side-by-side.

This was the first time Australia had fired its brand new HIMARS, the initial units only arriving in March.

Maj. Markus Spicer, executive officer of the U.S. Army’s 1st, Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment – part of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade – told Defense News that the firepower demonstration’s “interoperability between the partner forces was seamless, and we were able to execute timely and accurate fires.”

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Talisman Sabre 2025 also featured two HIMARS Rapid Insertion, or HIRAIN, activities.

The idea is that a C-130 or C-17 could land on an austere airstrip somewhere in the First Island Chain to deliver a HIMARS loaded with Precision Strike Missiles. These rapidly deployable assets would then provide a “bubble” of protection against enemy ships.

The first HIRAIN in this year’s Talisman Sabre occurred on July 22, when a Canadian C-17A flew a HIMARS from Darwin to Christmas Island.

The second event involved a German Luftwaffe A400M transport picking up a HIMARS from Rockhampton the following day. Although no rockets were fired in these dry-fire iterations, the armies were “able to complete the sensor-to-shooter linkage from observer to delivery system,” explained Spicer.

HIRAINs have featured in the preceding two iterations of Talisman Sabre, as the U.S. and its allies refine the method. Said Spicer: “It’s a capability we have to really expand our operational range, as well as provide multiple dilemmas for our adversaries.”

Even more significant than the HIRAIN demonstrations was the U.S. Army’s 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) firing of an SM-6 missile from its Typhon missile system.

This occurred on July 15, and it marked the first time the Typhon had fired outside the continental U.S. The SM-6 was launched from northern Australia, and it hit a maritime target in waters north of Darwin.

Col. Wade Germann, commander of the 3rd MDTF, commented that the “successful execution of an SM-6 live fire against a maritime target is another significant step forward in our ability to deploy, integrate and command and control advanced land-based maritime strike capabilities.”

It is notable that the target was afloat. It underscores the efforts the U.S. is making to hold Chinese warships at threat if they attempt to break into the Western Pacific through various chokepoints in the First Island Chain.

The U.S. Army declined to speak to Defense News about the event, but a press release noted, “The live fire provided valuable insights and lessons learned that will inform the development and employment of future land-based maritime strike and strategic strike capabilities.”

The system demonstrated its mobility – it can be rapidly inserted into austere locations by C-17 transport aircraft – and it can hit ships. Although an SM-6 was fired on this occasion, the Typhon can also launch Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a longer range.

It was no surprise that Talisman Sabre heavily rehearsed “island hopping” and seizure of island chains via a series of air assaults and amphibious landings.

Incidentally, the U.S. has a Typhon battery currently located in the Philippines, although it has not fired any missiles there to date.

Japan was responsible for yet another missile firing, when it launched two Type 12 anti-ship missiles from the Beecroft Weapons Range south of Sydney on July 22. Japan had fired a truck-launched Type 12 missile from the same location two years ago, the first time it had done so in the southern hemisphere, but this time the mission was far more sophisticated.

Two Type 12 missiles were fired at different trajectories, and they simultaneously hit a floating target around 19 miles off the Australian coast.

Col. Youhei Ito, commander of the Japanese unit firing the weapons, said: “Looking at the current state of the world, we can see the security environment is both complex and serious. It isn’t possible for us or any country to establish peace and stability unilaterally.”

He adde: “In line with this, [exercises like Talisman Sabre] will become more important in how we cooperate with allies and partners to achieve our mission.”

Japan is locked in tensions with China, as the latter attempts to claim remote islands such as the Senkakus in Japan’s southern archipelago.

Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.