Australia plans first F-35 involvement in Exercise ‘Bersama Lima'

The Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF's) plan to use Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II in ‘Bersama Lima 2024' is expected to improve the exercise's operational complexity. (Australian Department of Defence)

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will deploy Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIs for the first time in Exercise ‘Bersama Lima', the Australian Minister of Defence Richard Marles has said.

‘Bersama Lima' is a core exercise within the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA). The FPDA are a bilateral defence relationship framework involving Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

This is the “first time Australia will be contributing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to that exercise, and that will be the first time we'll have a fifth-generation aircraft participating in ‘Bersama Lima'”, Marles said during an FPDA meeting in Singapore on 31 May.

According to Marles, the involvement of the F-35As will render mission profiles and operations of ‘Bersama Lima' even “more high end and more complex” than previous iterations of the exercise.

The Singapore Minister of Defence, Ng Eng Hen, said that the exercise will reflect enhancements to the FPDA, with an agreement “to include more high-end warfighting capabilities [and] conventional capabilities”.

‘Bersama Lima' previously focused on combined joint operations in a multithreat environment, according to the Australian Department of Defence (DoD). The training is designed to “enhance interoperability and strengthen professional relationships”, the DoD said in 2023.

“There is a broadening of the exercises that we are doing. In the conventional space … we are increasing the assets that we are bringing to bear in exercises,” Marles said during the FPDA meeting.