A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 35th Fighter Wing taxis alongside a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 3rd Air Wing during Exercise Keen Sword 27 at Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Hachinohe Air Base in Japan on Oct. 20, 2026. Gavin Hameed/U.S. Air Force
U.S. and Japanese forces coordinated missiles fired from fighter aircraft and shore-based launchers to simultaneously strike the same target at sea during a major military exercise, according to an Oct. 26 U.S. military statement provided to The Epoch Times.
The operation took place during Keen Sword 27, an exercise involving more than 56,000 personnel from Japan, the United States, and partner nations. It tested the allies’ ability to detect approaching enemy warships, share targeting information, and coordinate attacks from different locations.
The exercise brought together F/A-18 Hornet and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets operating from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and land-based airfields. Japanese destroyers JS Kongo and JS Maya tracked maritime targets, while U.S. Marines operated sensors and anti-ship missile systems from shore.
U.S. Space Force assets helped maintain communications among the participating forces and protect them against interference.
The operation required the two militaries to coordinate their command decisions and equipment to reduce the time between detecting an approaching threat and launching missiles.
“Exercises like this accelerate the speed at which we can identify, engage, and destroy hostile maritime forces before they pose a threat to Japan’s sovereign territory,” said Maj. Jovanie Martinez, the exercise operations lead for the III Marine Expeditionary Force.
Missile Forces Deployed Across Southwestern Japan
The coordinated strike comes as U.S. and Japanese forces practice dispersing military equipment across Japan’s southwestern islands, which extend toward Taiwan and lie near waterways connecting the East China Sea and the western Pacific.
During Keen Sword 27, U.S. Marines transported the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, and mobile air-defense equipment to Ishigaki Island aboard a Japanese military aircraft.
NMESIS allows Marines to attack hostile ships from land, giving forces stationed on islands the ability to threaten enemy warships without relying exclusively on naval vessels or aircraft.
U.S. Marines with 12th Littoral Combat Team, 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, embark a Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System onto a Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-130 during Exercise Keen Sword 27 at Naha, Okinawa, Japan, on Oct. 17, 2026. Camila Garibay/U.S. Marine Corps
Japan’s Joint Operations Command lists combined anti-ship operations among the exercise’s major training activities, alongside air and missile defense, space operations, cyber warfare, and logistics.
At four bases across Japan, U.S. and Japanese engineering units practiced repairing damaged runways to restore air operations after simulated attacks.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jonathan Henson, a Keen Sword planner, said the training had expanded from tabletop exercises two years earlier to hands-on repairs. At Misawa Air Base in northern Japan, crews aimed to repair 120 simulated craters over three days, working around the clock.
