Japanese, U.S. forces enhance readiness, interoperability during Keen Sword 25

FORUM Staff

The Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and the United States military conducted exercise Keen Sword 25 from October 23 to November 1, 2024, at sites across Japan. Personnel from the Australian Defence Force and Canadian Armed Forces also participated.

The biennial, joint field-training exercise, first held in 1986, increases readiness and interoperability while strengthening the ironclad Japan-U.S. alliance.

The alliance of nearly 65 years is built on shared interests and values and a commitment to freedom and human rights. Both countries are focused on ensuring peace and security in the Indo-Pacific, including building partnerships and strengthening multilateral cooperation.

“The U.S.-Japan Alliance has served as the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and across the world … and has never been stronger,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Roger B. Turner, commanding general of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a news release.
During Keen Sword 25, personnel from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force trained with their JSDF counterparts alongside Australian and Canadian partners. The sites included Japanese and U.S. bases, 12 commercial airports and 20 commercial seaports from Hokkaido to Okinawa, with most of the exercise taking place on Okinawa and at Kagoshima on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s main islands, according to a news release.

Drills included amphibious operations, air combat, maritime security and cyber defense, and involved about 33,000 Japanese personnel, 12,000 U.S. troops, 40 vessels and 370 aircraft.

Comprehensive training scenarios sharpened the capabilities critical to defending Japan and responding to a regional crisis or contingency.

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade and U.S. Marines from III Marine Expeditionary Force, for example, conducted multiple unilateral and side-by-side amphibious landings. The drills demonstrated the capability of forward-deployed forces to rapidly counter aggression against Japan and other regional Allies and Partners, while improving readiness.

Live-fire exercises such as Keen Sword demonstrate the ability of the U.S. and its Allies and Partners to defend territory across the region and to support a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

Representatives from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability (PMTEC) office met with Japanese defense officials in Tokyo to demonstrate live, virtual and constructive (LVC) enablers being applied to enhance joint and coalition training during Keen Sword 25.

Efforts included sharing lessons on technical applications, joint and multidomain use, and emerging capabilities involved with LVC training. Synthetic models and simulations were networked across Japan to demonstrate how such capabilities significantly increase the realism of warfighter training and boost integrated deterrence.

“As our partners, like Japan, advance their training architectures and capabilities, we need to ensure that we collectively develop our systems to be interoperable and supportive of current and emerging high-end training requirements for our joint, bilateral and coalition forces across the theater,” said Dr. Andre Stridiron, who leads PMTEC.