At 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, sharing information to a network is just as critical as it is when you’re on the ground.

Last month, aviators from Australia and Japan shared information through the tactical battlefield network during a unique airborne exercise.

The exercise involved a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon and a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) Kawasaki RC-2 aircraft, each flying from air bases in Japan.

Both aircraft are an important part of how each country conducts its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

The significance of this activity was reflected in senior leadership talks between Australia, Japan and the United States. In May last year, defence ministers from all three countries committed to increasing their trilateral ISR cooperation.

Australian Air Force Attaché in Japan Wing Commander Andrew Fisher said the exercise built on previous engagements by RAAF P-8A aviators with Japan and the United States.

“We want ISR crews from Australia, Japan and the United States to be linked and exchanging data together,” Wing Commander Fisher said.

“We conduct around one or two ground-based exchanges each year to build our relationships, with the most recent one at Kadena [in Okinawa] in October 2025.”

'Most of the hard work is done in the lead-up to conducting the flight, ensuring that everyone is using the right network and can successfully join.'

ISR platforms such as the P-8A and RC-2 carry specially trained crew and powerful sensors, which collect information and build a detailed picture of their battlespace.

The tactical network can share that picture with other aircraft, ships and units in the battlespace, allowing other crews and commanders alike to make more informed decisions about their mission.

Ground-based cooperation and airborne exchange activities are essential to ensuring information can be shared on the network when it matters.

“Most of the hard work is done in the lead-up to conducting the flight, ensuring that everyone is using the right network and can successfully join,” Wing Commander Fisher said.

“If the preparation isn’t done beforehand through exchanges like this, then solving any problems in the air can be difficult, particularly in a bilateral or multilateral context.

“Demonstrating we can do it once is important to ensuring we can bring this cooperation to future exercises and operations between Australia, Japan and the United States.

“What we learn by connecting our P-8A to Japanese and American aircraft can then be used to inform how we apply this to other RAAF aircraft in the future.”