A soldier from the Australian army’s 3rd Brigade briefs U.S> Marines and soldiers ahead of the Southern Jackaroo exercise at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville, Australia, May 25, 2026. (Kyle Chan/U.S. Marine Corps)
American soldiers and Marines helped kick off the largest Australian army exercise of the year alongside Japanese troops on Friday.
Southern Jackaroo is slated to run until July 3 at Townsville Training Ground in the eastern state of Queensland, according to U.S. and Japanese officials.
Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, the Australian army’s Townsville-based 3rd Brigade and the Japan’s Middle Army are participating, according to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.
About 300 U.S. Marines are involved in the drill, along with 1,500 Australian troops and 400 from Japan, Capt. Kevin Hicks, a spokesman for the rotational Marines, said by email Friday.
The Marines will “conduct offensive and defensive operations, live-fire platoon attacks, small-arms/indirect-fire employment, and a capstone multi-national combined-arms live-fire exercise,” he said.
Southern Jackaroo “is the largest Australian Army exercise this year,” he said. A Jackaroo is an Australian ranch hand.
South Korean troops are also in Australia participating in Exercise Tiger Dingo, which runs concurrently with Southern Jackaroo, Hicks said.
U.S. forces are training for littoral combat, which means jungle warfare, Australian defense researcher Allan Orr told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.
“The only place in Australia that has a jungle environment is North Queensland,” he said of the area that encompasses Townsville.
There could be a reorientation of the American presence in Australia to Queensland now that the Marines’ footprint in Darwin has been accepted by Australians politically, Orr added.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force said Southern Jackaroo aims to maintain and strengthen a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” according to a May 22 news release.
Japanese forces will boost their combat capabilities and cooperation with U.S. and Australian forces during the drill, the release said.
Troops from the three nations trained together in September in Niigata, Kyoto, Hyogo, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures on Japan’s main island of Honshu during the annual Orient Shield exercise.
A reciprocal access agreement that took effect in August 2023 allows Australian and Japanese forces to train in each other’s territory.
