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Operation Talisman Sabre is scheduled to taking place over a six week period from the end of May to 2 July 2007. According to the Public Environment Report released October 2006 it will involve approximately 13,700 US personnel and 12,400 Australian personnel. Exercise activity will be located at Australian Defence training areas including the Australian-US "training facilities": Shoalwater Bay in Queensland and Bradshaw and Delamere Range in the Northern Territory [see map]. Support sites including civilian facilities in Australia, offshore and overseas will also be utilised.

Operation Talisman Sabre will utilise and traverse areas of high environmental significance, i.e. world heritage areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and natural heritage listed sites which include indigenous sites and Ramsar wetlands. These areas are habitat to many migratory birds and threatened species such as dugongs and humpback whales. Environmental impacts identified by the Department of defence include effects on air quality, fire potential, noise pollution, waste disposal and spills and erosion from amphibian craft landings and weapon target zones.

Talisman Sabre will involve US nuclear-powered vessels. All US "attack class" submarines are nuclear powered. The US fleet may also be carrying nuclear weapons, as well as depleted uranium munitions. The US has a 'NCND' policy regarding nuclear weapons - that is to 'Neither Confirm Nor Deny'. The Australian people are not allowed to know what weapons are in Australian waters. Nuclear-powered vessels put our environment at risk. Nuclear weapons put our planet at risk.

Legacy of US bombing ranges

Previous US bombing practices have caused devestating effects on local communities. The US dropped napalm and depleted uranium on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, before a strong community campagin forced them to leave. The cancer rate for children 11-19 years old on Vieques is 245% higher than the rest of Puerto Rico.

Use of Uranium Weapons

The US has used uranium coated weapons extensively in areas of both conflict and 'practice' bombing ranges. With a half-life of 4.5 billion years, uranium emitted from the explosion of these weapons have shown to cause serious health effects such as cancers and birth defects. Doug Rokke, a former US Army officer and health physicist in charge of uranium weapons 'clean up' after the first Gulf War developed health problems within two weeks of his return from the Middle East. Rokke and other members of the team developed serious health problems. Analysis of Rokke's urine March 1994 revealed urinary uranium 2,000% beyond normal levels.

Depleted uranium has been used by the US and UK in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosova, leaving fields, deserts and water radioactive, impacting on the environment, community and soldiers for thousands of years to come.

Australian military - defence or offence?

The military activities carried out in Operation Talisman Sabre include bombing, parachute drops and on-shore landings, combining land, sea and air forces practising with high-tech military equipment. These activities are not designed to defend Australia or protect its people. They are designed to practise aggression and offensive military strategies.

The establishment of three Australia-US joint 'training facilities' (Bradshaw, NT, Delemere Range, NT and Shoalwater Bay, QLD) and increased joint training send out a clear message of antagonistic military mite. Australia is falling in with the new US military strategies to develop lilly pads for its troops around the wrold setting itself up to be the launch pad for a US lead 'perpetual war'.

Australia has agreed to support the US Star Wars defence program which will militarise space using Pine Gap, and has been actively involved in supporting US-lead military offensives, such as the war in Iraq.

Military Exercises - Who pays?

Australia's Defence Capability Plan will cost taxpayers $50 billion over the next decade. This is $55 million each day. A further $60 billion is being spent on three air-warfare destroyers with long range anti-missile capabilities which will be based off the Western Australian coast.

To meet its exorbitant military spending. the Howard Government has raided other portfolios such as health, welfare and education.

US-Australian war games also have a hidden cost. In locations such as the Philippines and Japan, US bases have become the centre of major social problems. The US bases on Okinawa are linked to major increases in levels of prostituion, drugs, alcoholism, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and abuse of women and children. The Australian experience is similar.

What's wrong with these War Games?

• The exercises will impact on the environment of the region, the community, our neighbours in the Pacific, and our relationship with the rest of the world.
• US ships will be nuclear powered and possibly carrying nuclear weapons.
• The exercises are used to practice bombing, raiding and invading, not defence.
• Military exercises and bases are known to bring long term social problems to the regions they visit.
• The joint military exercises are a continuation of the legacy of genocide, colonisation and nuclear experimentation in Australia and this region.
• The exercises promote violence and aggression as a solution to world problems, rather than working towards peace.

• Environmental Impacts
• Militarising Australia
• Social and Economic Issues