Australia, Japan, and the United States have signed their first trilateral agreement aimed at enhancing logistics coordination and operational interoperability for maritime missions. The agreement seeks to streamline the sharing of information, technologies, and standardized procedures to better support both routine and emergency joint operations.
Key components include integrating logistics into naval exercises, such as ship and aircraft repairs, airfield restoration, and medical evacuation. This builds on existing bilateral partnerships among the three nations in areas like missile reloading and at-sea refueling.
The agreement also supports the US Navy’s efforts—through the Naval Sea Systems Command—to develop and test systems capable of transferring missile canisters between vessels at sea, even in challenging weather. These systems are compatible with MK-41 vertical launchers used by US and allied fleets, with more tests planned for 2025 and 2026.
This development reinforces ongoing collaboration, as replenishment ships from all three countries already perform joint refueling operations during combined exercises and missions in the Indo-Pacific.
