American, Indonesian and British paratroopers are preparing a parachute raid from a base in Japan into a training area almost 3,000 miles away in Indonesia, according to the 25th Infantry Division’s commander.
The paratroopers will link up with Japanese troops in East Java for a combined jump on Saturday, Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday from Puslatpur Marine Base, Indonesia.
The “forcible entry” training is practice for taking terrain from an enemy force, Evans said. The raid involves around 200 paratroopers and is part of the largest-ever Super Garuda Shield, an annual exercise involving 5,000 personnel from seven nations, he said.
Air Force C-17 Globemaster III and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the 15th Wing in Hawaii will fly the paratroopers from Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, 25th ID spokesman Maj.
Jeff Tolbert said by email Friday. The participating troops are from the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska.
The Army’s 8th Theater Sustainment Command used its watercraft to transport Australian M1A1 Abrams tanks to East Java for training with Indonesian Leopard tanks and U.S. troops of the Hawaii-based 25th ID, Evans said.
The division has no tanks of its own but in Indonesia is preparing its soldiers to fight alongside them, he said.
The war in Ukraine has proved that tanks are not obsolete, according to Grant Newsham, a retired Marine colonel and senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo.
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