Exercise Southern Jackaroo 2026, a multi-national training exercise, launched on May 29 and continues through July 3.
It began with an opening ceremony and brings together forces from the United States military, the Australia Defence Force and the Japan Self Defense Force.
The exercise uses live-fire scenarios and mounted maneuvers to ensure allied militaries can operate as a unified front in Indo-Pacific’s complex environments. The focus is on combined arms integration and tactical interoperability. Forces will demonstrate their ability to synchronize fires, maneuvers and effects to achieve a distinct and decisive battlefield advantage.
“Exercise Southern Jackaroo enhances our collective capability by integrating U.S. Marines alongside our allies in realistic, demanding scenarios,” Lt. Col. Mark Saville, 5th Marines commanding officer of 1st Bn., said. “By practicing how we communicate and work together on the ground, we ensure that our combined forces maintain a high state of combat readiness and a decisive tactical edge.”
Southern Jackaroo 2026’s primary focus is interoperability advancement. Participants will align communications, tactics and procedures to eliminate friction points.
This year’s exercise also is designed to test and prove combined arms integration. Participants will execute force-on-force offensive and defensive operations, mounted machine-gun gunnery, mortar employment, and other training.