TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The U.S. military and its allies began Valiant Shield 2024 exercises on Friday (June 7) in one of the largest iterations of the biennial exercises.
Valiant Shield 2024 will involve contingents from every branch of the U.S. military as well as Japan Self Defense Forces and others. The exercises will involve drills throughout the western Pacific, from the Japanese archipelago to the U.S. territories of Northern Marianas, and Guam, and as far south as Palau, a diplomatic ally of Taiwan.
The Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Stephan Koehler, was quoted in a press release as saying, “Valiant Shield provides us a unique opportunity to operate and engage with our allies and partners and to demonstrate our shared commitment to global security and stability.”
“It takes all of us to maintain a safe, stable, and secure Indo-Pacific as we flex our joint and combined capabilities to advance multi-domain operations.”
The former Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral John Aquilino, told a U.S. congressional committee in March that this year’s Valiant Shield would provide an opportunity to test the U.S.’ “joint fires network,” per USNI News. It is a prototype system that will integrate multi-axis, and multi-domain command structures across forces for the entire region.
Aquilino was quoted in the report as saying, “The approach we’ve taken with the joint fires network is to pull together a best-of-breed approach of Project Convergence from the Army, Overmatch from the Navy and Marine Corps, and then (Advanced Battle Management System) from the Air Force, along with the DARPA aspect of Assault Breaker II – to pull all those together, and deliver a real, near time best of breed solution to be able to command and control the joint force.”
This year’s exercises will be held from June 7-18, according to the press release. Although not stated explicitly, it is likely that a contingent from Taiwan will observe some of the Valiant Shield exercises.
In May, it was confirmed that Taiwan joined exercises with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific in April. When the exercises were reported by the press, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that the drills were carried out under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea.
