Introduction

The following introduction is taken from the Tankograd website:

Australia has long enjoyed a strong defence relationship with the USA. It was strengthened by Australian support for the USA's Global War on Terror, specifically the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that turned into long-running counterinsurgencies. Today the USA and Australia have jointly turned their attention to the next looming threat, that of a belligerent China that is investing heavily to modernise its People's Liberation Army.

The largest and most important military training between Australia and the USA occurs every two years under the auspices of Exercise Talisman Sabre. Over the past decade, it has been interesting to observe the changing nature of the event, its growing complexity and scale, and the modernisation of vehicle fleets. Indeed, this publication for the first time illustrates the wide range of US Army and US Marine Corps vehicles that make their way Down Under for this important event in the two countries? military training calendar.

Review

This offering from Tankograd is a soft backed offering, with a nice glossy card cover and 64 semi-gloss pages within. The author of this release is Gordon Arthur. The text within the title is provided in both German and English - German on the left and English on the right of each page. I have to say, that I never realised that American forces took part in exercises is Australia - which is daft when you consider how close American troops are stationed to Australia. If I have my facts correct, the images within this title are from the combined exercise Talisman, Sabre 23. The specific text is minimal which is normal for Tankograd but is informative , but is more than made up for by the long and well written captions that accompany each and every photographs. The photographs included are all of a very high quality and covers in  my opinion all aspects of the American army including air support with the US Marine Corps getting a lot of cover in that area. What I particularly appreciate about the contents of this title is that alongside what many consider to be the sexy elements - the heavy vehicles such as tanks. You also get to see the a far less covered forklifts and bulldozers as used in the field. Lastly well presented here, are the amphibious delivery systems for getting vehicles on to the target beaches.