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QUEENSLAND, Australia – Two U.S. Air Force contingency support teams ensured establishment and maintainability of air operations at multiple locations in Australia in support of Talisman Sabre 25, July 13 - 29, 2025.
The two CTSs, totaling eight Airmen split evenly between Queensland and Northern Territory, provided 24/7 support in contingency environments that enabled dozens of aircrew and aircraft to perform flight operations through the duration of Talisman Sabre 25.
“CSTs bridge the gap between strategic mobility assets and tactical requirements,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Roed Mejia, 773rd Logistics Readiness Squadron director of operations and TS25’s USAF sustainment lead. “They transform an empty runway into a functioning aerial port of debarkation or embarkation. Without CSTs, we have expensive aircraft that can fly anywhere but can't effectively deliver their cargo. With them, we have a global logistics network that can support any mission, anywhere, within hours of arrival. They're the difference between having strategic reach and having strategic impact.”
Prior to TS25, the Air Force Interoperability Council signed the vehicle equivalency matrix that allowed Airmen to train and meet Australian standards which enabled the CSTs to operate Australian equipment and vehicles seamlessly integrating into their local operations supporting all air freight movements for participating partner nation aircraft in these locations.
“One of our objectives for this exercise is joint interoperability with our partners in the Australia Defence Forces,” said Mejia. “This year, we successfully integrated with the local Air Movements units in both RAAF bases Darwin and Amberley. We strategically aligned them where the majority of our cargo throughput is and forward deployed them to other locations where and when necessary.”
Although the two teams were primarily working out of their respective locations, they had the ability to deploy quickly to different areas of the exercise in order to meet critical requirements elsewhere.
“We also forward deployed our CSTs along the east coast to support joint air operations performing joint inspections to ensure that the cargo uploaded onboard our aircraft, air worthy and safe for air transport,” Mejia added.
Furthering their effectiveness, the CSTs also contributed to multidomain success of forces.
“Our largest customer is the airborne and artillery operations of our combined land components. Not only did we support the airborne operations, we’ve also ensured that the [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System] can be transported by air safely to locations where it is needed.”
The biggest challenge the teams faced was learning the different cargo handling procedures, equipment used and safety protocols. However, this created an opportunity for the teams,, and other nations, to expand their knowledge and capabilities with one another.
“We can learn from each other in terms of the varying loading requirements for different aircraft configurations,” Mejia explained. “Exposure to different experiences from our partners leads to sharing best practices in complex, multi-service environments.Our ability to seamlessly integrate with the Australian AMS is a force multiplier.”
Talisman Sabre is a major bilateral military exercise between the U.S. and Australia aimed to enhance partnerships and interoperability between key allies, and boost collective readiness to respond to a variety of security challenges. This year marks the eleventh and largest iteration of the exercise.
“The key is to ensure our CSTs are actively engaged with our partners, document lessons learned, build trust through reliable logistics support, and bring those insights back to improve our standard procedures,” Mejia said. “Talisman Sabre 2025 validates our interoperability concepts before we need them in real-world contingencies.”
| Date Taken: | 07.29.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2025 14:37 |
| Story ID: | 546258 |
| Location: | QUEENSLAND, AU |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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