Today more than 10,000 combat soldiers will be landed ashore and parachuted into the battlefield when the high-end war-fighting phase of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2017 begins in Central Queensland.

The battle phase will kick off at Stanage Bay, with the largest beach landing Australian forces have been involved in since the Second World War, and will then continue with ten days of field warfare training in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, north of Rockhampton.

The training area is an absolutely unique capability and we need places like this to be able to practice high-end war fighting

The overall force taking part in the exercise consists of 33,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from Australia, the US, NZ and Japan operating in thirty-six warships, more than two-hundred military aircraft and in the field.

The ‘Officer Conducting the Exercise’, Major General Paul McLachlan, Commanding Officer of the Australian Army's 1st Division, said the Shoalwater Bay Training Area provided the visiting forces with a unique and essential training environment.

A Department of Defence video depicting the buildup phase of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2017. Credit: Defence

“This phase of the exercise will incorporate force protection activities, special forces actions, amphibious landings, parachuting, land force manoeuvre, urban operations, air operations, maritime operations and the coordinated firing of live ammunition and explosive ordnance from small arms, artillery, naval vessels and aircraft,” MAJGEN McLachlan said.

“In my experience, I don't think there is another training area in the world that allows us to do simultaneous amphibious operations, joint land combat and instrumented air attack the way that we are doing it here.”

“The training area is an absolutely unique capability and we need places like this to be able to practice high-end war fighting, allowing us the opportunity to get better and to be able to fight for our national interests,” he said.

The exercise is being conducted for the seventh time in 2017 and will continue through July.