UK-Japan meeting resolves details of Carrier Group operations

Exercise Vigilant Isles, the latest combined training deployment of UK and Japanese troops, began on 15 January. The exercise coincided with a meeting of UK and Japanese defence secretaries to commit to strengthened defence ties between the two countries.   

The UK is currently the only European nation to conduct bilateral military exercises on Japanese soil, and 2025 will see the third year of those exercises.

Exercise Vigilant Isles will see more than 100 UK soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade, the British Army’s global response force, train with Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces on the island of Kyushu. The exercise is expected to increase interoperability between both countries’ forces.

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While much of the discussion at the ministerial meeting centred on GCAP, the Global Combat Air Programme, details were also hammered out for the flagship deployment of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group to Japan later in the year.

The Carrier Strike Group, comprised of the Royal Navy flagship, HMS Prince of Wales, its escorts and aircraft, will work alongside the Japanese Self Defense Forces and other partners to help defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. They will conduct a series of operations and exercises, including a port visit in Japan.

The HMS Prince of Wales is one of only two vessels in the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class. The other, the HMS Queen Elizabeth deployed to the Indo-Pacific region in 2021. The Royal Navy also has persistently-deployed Offshore Patrol Vessels, the HMS Tamar and HMS Spey (both Batch 2 River Class), operating closely with Japan and its regional partners to promote maritime security in the region.

At the meeting, UK Defence Secretary John Healey stressed the indivisibility between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security in his talks with Defence Minister Gen Nakatani.

“With increasing instability across the world, it is more important than ever that we strengthen cooperation with our international partners like Japan,” Healey said.

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