
Australian and Indonesian troops conducted the largest amphibious assault held to date between the two countries last week.
Under the cover of Australian Army Tiger attack helicopters and Indonesian Air Force F-16s, a combined force of troops, tanks and vehicles launched from amphibious ship HMAS Adelaide (L01) landed on Banongan Beach in the culminating activity of Exercise Keris Woomera. Kicking off earlier this month with the departure of Adelaide from Darwin, the exercise included 2,000 participants for drills in both Indonesia and Australia. A contingent of Indonesian Marines embarked on the Canberra-class landing helicopter dock from the onset of the exercise to train with their Australian Amphibious Force counterparts, which included a landing in Queensland, before the main landing in East Java.
The Anzac-class frigate HMAS Stuart (FFH 113) also joined Adelaide for Keris Woomera, with the two warships holding live-fire drills during the exercise. Aside from Wednesday’s amphibious landing, other activities included a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief evacuation scenario, according to the Australian Defense Force.
Keris Woomera is one of the main exercises within Indo-Pacific Engagement 2024, an annual series of defense and security activities between Canberra and its regional partners. Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam are slated for various military drills between August and December.

Last year, Australian forces conducted a similar amphibious assault in the Philippines on a beach facing the South China Sea during Exercise Alon.
The landing at Banongan Beach comes after Canberra and Jakarta signed the Australia-Indonesia Defense Cooperation Agreement, a treaty that pledged more complex military-to-military activities and exchanges between the two countries.
Fauzan Malufti, an Indonesian defense analyst based in Washington, told USNI News that Keris Woomera “highlights the substantial and rapid increase in defense engagements between the two countries.”
While the two countries have had previous defense engagements, as well as interaction in multilateral exercises such as Super Garuda Shield and Talisman Sabre, Malufti stressed that the countries could do more together.
“Despite the positive trend, the security partnership between Indonesia and Australia has yet to reach its full potential. For instance, it seems that there has been relatively limited progress in defense industry cooperation, such as procurement, technology transfer, joint production and development,” Malufti said.