The 2022 Keen Sword Joint Exercises

From November 11th to November 19th, the U.S, Australian, Japanese and Canadian naval fleets got together for the 2022 “Keen Sword Exercises”, that is taking place in Japanese but also International waters.

This exercises have the aim of creating possible scenarios “designed to challenge the critical capabilities required to support the defense of Japan and stability of the Indo-Pacific region”, specially because of the Chinese growth in military and armament matters, which confers a enormous threat to this region’s stability.

This joint exercises are highly important since China has the largest navy in the world in terms of the number of the ships, corroborating once more the importance of this activities. From Japan's side “the soldiers, ships and aircraft are drawn from different branches of Japan’s self-defense forces including the army, navy, air force and the marines, as well as the space force”. Also, there is included “an extensive anti-submarine warfare drills, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold fired its 5-inch gun on Sunday as part of live-firing exercises, the 7th fleet said in a statement. Three Japanese destroyers, two Canadian frigates and one Australian destroyer also took part”.

The fact that Australia and Canada have also participated shows, first of all that the regional pacts made in the Indo-Pacific region, mainly AUKUS, are being fulfill and respected, and second, shows how important it is that the most important navy powers in the world are united to combat the Chinese maritime supremacy.