REPORT: RESOLUTE DRAGON 2026, 9,600 SOLDIERS ON THE EDGE OF THE INDO-PACIFIC

Introduction: Kyushu and Okinawa under allied boots

The opening of a show of force

On June 20, 2026, at Camp Kengun in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, Lieutenant General Seiji Toriumi, commander of the Western Army of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, delivered a few words at the opening ceremony. They were sober, precise, and heavy with meaning in the current Indo-Pacific context: "Showing our defense capabilities is very important for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region." This is not the speech of an officer preparing for war. It is the speech of an officer seeking to prevent one — by showing those watching from the Chinese or North Korean coasts that allied deterrence is real, trained, and ready. Exercise Resolute Dragon 26 had just begun. 9,600 American and Japanese military personnel were about to spend the following ten days rehearsing together what each hopes never to have to do for real.

The exercise Resolute Dragon — the Resolute Dragon — is a series of annual training exercises between the United States Marine Corps and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces. The sixth edition of these maneuvers, beginning June 20, 2026 and continuing through June 30, 2026, mobilized personnel from all three Japanese services — ground, maritime, and air — as well as American Marines and Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel. In total, 23 sites spread across Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture served as training grounds, in a geographic space that runs along the western boundary of Japan's maritime domain — and looks directly toward Taiwan and the waters claimed by China.

Geography as a political message

The choice of Kyushu and Okinawa as the exercise theaters is not incidental. These archipelagos constitute the axis of the southwestern Japanese island chain stretching from the southern tip of Kyushu to Yonaguni, less than 110 kilometers from Taiwan's coast. This is the "first island chain" that American military planners consider a natural geographic barrier limiting the Chinese navy's ability to expand freely into the western Pacific. Every military exercise conducted in this area sends a clear signal: these islands are defended, they are integrated into the American-Japanese security architecture, and any attempt to take them or bypass them by force will meet with coordinated, trained resistance. Resolute Dragon 26 is, in this sense, a military exercise but also a diplomatic message articulated in the language of boots and armor.

The island defense exercises — their explicit declared objective by both parties — simulate precisely the operations that American-Japanese forces would have to conduct if one of the small islands of the Nansei-Shoto archipelago were occupied by an opposing force. These operations involve the transport of troops to islands by sea and air, the establishment of beachheads, the deployment of anti-ship weapon systems from island positions, and the coordination of air and ground strikes in a contested environment. These are precisely the capabilities that China is developing and that Japan and the United States are seeking to counter.

9,600 men and women, 23 sites: the anatomy of the exercise

The operational firsts of 2026

The sixth edition of Resolute Dragon distinguishes itself from its predecessors through several significant operational innovations. First: the deployment of vessels from the Self-Defense Force Maritime Transport Group — a military maritime transport unit newly equipped with enhanced amphibious capabilities. This is the first time these ships have participated in the exercise, signaling the growing strength of the maritime component of Japan's defensive response. Second: the first use of a V-22 Osprey from the Japan Self-Defense Force for casualty evacuation operations from Miyako Island, in Okinawa Prefecture, to the US Marines' Futenma Air Base on Okinawa's main island. This is a medical evacuation capability in remote islands that fills a real operational gap. And it is also a demonstration of the Osprey's versatility in island terrain, with its ability to take off and land vertically in confined spaces.

Third innovation: the integration into the exercise of the new Type 25 land-based anti-ship missile systems, which had been operationally deployed by Japanese forces in March 2026. These systems — whose official Japanese designation is the Type 25 Land-based Anti-ship Missile Launcher — represent a substantial reinforcement of Japan's capability to deny naval access in the waters around its southern islands. Their training during Resolute Dragon 26 is their first major exercise, signaling that the operational build-up of this system is proceeding on a sustained schedule. In the context of Chinese naval expansion — and notably submarines such as the one observed at Jiangnan — modern coastal anti-ship missiles deployed on the Nansei island chain contribute directly to deterrence.

Type 10 tanks at Hijudai — without their guns

One particular detail of Resolute Dragon 26 deserves noting: the Type 10 tanks of the Japan Self-Defense Forces participated in maneuvers at the Hijudai training area in Oita Prefecture — but without firing their main guns. The reason: a training accident that occurred in April 2026 at the same site, which had caused four deaths or injuries among military personnel. The authorities judged it prudent to suspend main gun firing exercises at this site pending a review of safety procedures. This detail, seemingly minor, illustrates the real complexity of military preparation: even the world's best-equipped armies must manage accidents, adapt their exercises accordingly, and maintain safety standards that protect their soldiers during training. The tanks therefore conducted their maneuver and coordination evolutions, without the firing dimension that often represents the most realistic part of their combat training.

The participation of the Type 10 tanks in the exercise remains significant despite this constraint. These tanks — developed specifically for Japan with dimensions adapted to Japanese roads and bridges that are narrower than their European or American equivalents — represent the armored component of ground island defense. In an island invasion scenario, armored vehicles capable of opposing a landing or counterattacking an enemy beachhead are a significant force multiplier. Their presence at Resolute Dragon 26, even without live fire, signals their integration into the joint American-Japanese island defense doctrine.

The island defense doctrine: a revolution in progress

From conventional defense to distributed defense

The central concept of Resolute Dragon — the defense of remote islands against invasion — reflects a doctrinal revolution underway in Japan's approach to its own security. For decades, Japan maintained a relatively static defensive posture, centered on protecting its main islands — Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku — with armed forces that declared themselves explicitly non-offensive. The growing military power of China, increasing ambiguities over the status of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands disputed with Beijing, and repeated provocations in adjacent airspace and waters have led Tokyo to fundamentally revise this posture.

Today, Japan is developing capabilities that clearly fall under active defense: long-range anti-ship missiles deployed on southern islands, counterstrike capabilities, amphibious forces for island retaking. This doctrinal evolution was unthinkable ten years ago. It reflects the recognition that purely defensive deterrence — "we will do nothing, we will only resist" — is not credible against a military power as determined as today's China. Resolute Dragon 26 is the exercised manifestation of this new doctrine — a doctrine that tells Beijing: if you try to take these islands, you will not only face local resistance, you will face joint American-Japanese forces capable of retaking what you have taken.

Coastal anti-ship missiles as force multipliers

The deployment of the Type 25 missile systems during Resolute Dragon 26 perfectly illustrates this new doctrine. An anti-ship missile fired from a small island can sink a much larger and much more expensive surface vessel. This is the logic of asymmetry in island defense: a relatively mobile and inexpensive platform — a missile system on a truck, moved between different positions to avoid counter-battery fire — can threaten colossal naval investments. The Chinese navy, with its destroyers, frigates, and amphibious assault ships, presents precisely the targets that coastal anti-ship missiles are designed to engage.

Training these systems under realistic conditions — transport on military vessels to the islands, deployment from island positions, simulation of firing procedures — is essential for this capability to be truly deterrent. A weapons system that an army does not know how to use effectively is not a real deterrent. This is why Resolute Dragon 26 specifically integrates the training of these new system crews under conditions as close to real as possible — maritime transport of launchers to the islands, terrain deployment, simulation of operational procedures. This is not a parade exercise — it is serious combat training.

The Japanese Osprey: a new capability in the archipelagos

A first in the history of the exercise

One of the most visible innovations of Resolute Dragon 26 is the first operational use of a Japanese V-22 Osprey in the context of an island defense exercise. The Osprey — an aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing that can convert in flight into a fast turboprop transport — is a platform particularly suited to operations in archipelagos like Okinawa, where small islands often lack a long enough runway for conventional transport aircraft. Its ability to take off and land vertically or with a short run allows it to operate from areas that conventional helicopters would struggle to reach quickly.

The specific mission tested during Resolute Dragon 26 was the medical evacuation of casualties from Miyako Island — one of the Ryukyu islands situated between Okinawa and Taiwan — to Futenma Air Base. In a real combat scenario involving fighting on these remote islands, the ability to quickly evacuate seriously wounded soldiers to advanced medical facilities can mean the difference between life and death for injured soldiers. This is a combat rescue capability that improves the resilience of forces deployed in island terrain — and indirectly, the willingness of soldiers to fight in advanced forward positions if they know that rapid evacuation is possible in the event of injury.

The Osprey and the risks of modernization

It is worth noting that the Osprey has a complex safety history. The aircraft has experienced several fatal accidents during its development and operational service — including a series of accidents that had led to a temporary suspension of its operations in certain areas. Japan had itself expressed concerns about the system's safety before acquiring its own aircraft. The first-use exercise during Resolute Dragon 26 therefore takes place in a context where trust in the aircraft's reliability is being built progressively, exercise by exercise, in conditions that aim to maximize safety while developing operational competence. This is the permanent balance of military modernization: every new system brings new capabilities and new risks to manage.

The combination of the Osprey for medical evacuation and the new coastal anti-ship missile systems illustrates the nature of the ongoing modernization within the Japan Self-Defense Forces. It is not simply an increase in personnel or budget — it is a qualitative transformation of capabilities, with new platforms giving Japanese forces operational options they did not previously have. This transformation is accelerated by the perceived growth of the Chinese threat and by Tokyo's growing clarity on the need to be able to defend itself more autonomously, complementing the alliance with the United States.

The North Korean threat as a backdrop

Two threats, one exercise

If analysts naturally associate Resolute Dragon 26 with the context of China's growing military power, the exercise in reality addresses a spectrum of threats that also includes North Korea. Pyongyang's ballistic missile program — whose latest developments include the Hwasong-20, a recently tested solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, and shorter-range nuclear-capable missile systems — maintains permanent military pressure on Japan and the American forces stationed there. The bases in Kyushu and Okinawa used during Resolute Dragon 26 would themselves be potential targets in a conflict involving North Korea.

The dual threat — China for island scenarios, North Korea for missile strikes — justifies a deterrence response that is simultaneously capable of island defense operations and protection against ballistic missiles. Japanese investments in missile defense systems — notably Patriot PAC-3 batteries and Aegis-equipped destroyers — fit within this logic. Resolute Dragon 26 focuses on the ground and amphibious dimension of deterrence — island defense — but it is part of a larger ensemble that includes anti-missile and air defense components. It is the coherence of this ensemble that constitutes the real architecture of deterrence in the western Pacific.

Synchronization with other allied exercises

It is significant that Resolute Dragon 26 takes place simultaneously with a series of other military exercises and developments in the region. In June 2026, Taiwan conducted its own coastal missile exercises toward the Taiwan Strait. China continued its regular exercises around Taiwan. Discussions on defense spending within NATO took place in Brussels. And allied navies closely monitored activities at the Jiangnan shipyard. This is not coincidence — it is the nature of the current strategic period, where multiple crises and developments unfold simultaneously across several theaters, demanding distributed attention and response across the entire geopolitical spectrum. Resolute Dragon 26 is one thread of this complex fabric — an important thread, but not the only one.

Coordination between different theaters is managed by American unified commands — notably US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) based in Honolulu — which seeks to maintain coherence of deterrence posture across the entire Pacific area of responsibility. Exercises like Resolute Dragon 26 are integrated into this broader planning framework, coordinated with other bilateral and multilateral exercises to collectively signal the robustness of the allied architecture. It is a delicate balance to maintain — enough demonstration to deter, not enough to provoke.

The Japanese perspective: a nation in strategic transformation

Tokyo rewrites its strategic constitution

To understand the real scope of Resolute Dragon 26, one must grasp the strategic transformation that Japan has been undergoing in recent years. Japan's 1947 Constitution, adopted under American occupation, contains Article 9, which renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and prohibits the maintenance of war potential. This constitutional provision has long limited — at least in theory — Japan's offensive capabilities. But since the adoption of the revised National Security Strategy in December 2022, Japan has clearly reinterpreted its constitutional constraints to authorize so-called counterstrike capabilities — the ability to strike adversary bases if an attack on Japan is deemed imminent.

This is a historic change. Japan is rearming — not in a logic of aggression, but in a logic of credible deterrence against threats that its leaders perceive as real and growing. Japan's defense budget has increased significantly in recent years, with a target of 2% of GDP now reached, after decades spent well below that level. Military acquisitions — F-35s, Ospreys, anti-ship missiles, Aegis destroyers — testify to this effort. And exercises like Resolute Dragon 26 are the operational dimension of this transformation — they convert equipment into real capabilities and soldiers into trained fighters.

The alliance that stands

At the heart of this Japanese transformation is the alliance with the United States. The US-Japan Security Treaty obligates Washington to defend Japan in the event of an armed attack on its territory — an obligation whose concrete application depends on operational coherence between the two armies. This is precisely the coherence that Resolute Dragon 26 builds, edition by edition. Learning to fight together — to coordinate communications, to integrate weapons systems, to manage shared logistics, to mutually understand operational procedures — cannot be improvised. It happens in the mud of a training ground at Hijudai, on the decks of maritime transport vessels in the waters around Okinawa, in the cockpits of Ospreys practicing their first island medical evacuations.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated on June 17, 2026, during his press conference in Brussels: "Ukraine is also sharing more and more of its battlefield knowledge with Europeans, Canada, and the United States, for example through our joint center in Poland, JATEC, but also through other means to share all this information on drone technology and modern warfare." This sharing of operational knowledge — the experience of real war disseminated to allies who are training for potential conflicts — is precisely what bilateral exercises like Resolute Dragon allow to be put into practice. The lessons learned in Ukraine about defending forward positions, using anti-ship missiles, joint arms coordination — they feed the doctrines tested in Pacific exercises.

American forces and their permanent presence

USMC: at the heart of island deterrence

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the principal American partner in Resolute Dragon 26. This is the logic of the mission: the Marines are the American force dedicated to amphibious operations and landings — precisely the capabilities necessary to defend or retake islands. The permanent presence of American marine forces in Japan — notably in Okinawa, where major Marine bases such as Camp Schwab, Camp Hansen, and Futenma Air Station are located — is both a strategic asset and a recurring source of political tensions with the local Okinawan population, which bears a disproportionate share of the American military presence in Japan.

These tensions — real and documented, related to aircraft noise, incidents involving military personnel, restrictions on access to training areas — must not be ignored in an honest analysis of Resolute Dragon 26. Military deterrence rests on the physical presence of forces in the region, and this presence has social costs that Okinawa's residents pay in concrete terms. This is a tension that Japanese and American decision-makers must manage carefully, working to relocate certain facilities and improve relations with local communities. The social legitimacy of American military presence is a dimension of deterrence that no force table reflects — but that no serious strategy can ignore.

The build-up of Japanese ground forces

Alongside their partnership with the American Marines, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces — more commonly known as JGSDF — are in the midst of transformation. The creation of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) in 2018 gave Japan a force specifically designed for island assault operations — inspired by the American Marine forces but adapted to the Japanese context. This force, based in Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, regularly participates in Resolute Dragon exercises and other bilateral exercises. Its operational build-up — new platforms, new equipment, new exercises — is one of the most visible manifestations of Japan's strategic transformation.

Lieutenant General Seiji Toriumi, commander of the Western Army — the one that covers the Resolute Dragon 26 theater — used at the opening ceremony a formula that perfectly summarizes the philosophy of the exercise: "The defense of the West is the defense of Japan." This is both a doctrinal affirmation — the southern islands are as Japanese as Hokkaido — and a political message — Japan is ready to defend them. In the context of China's growing military power and its claims in the East China Sea, this message has a strategic value that extends far beyond the borders of the exercise itself.

What the hypothetical enemy observes

The readability of deterrence

A deterrence exercise is only effective insofar as it is correctly perceived by the adversary it seeks to deter. Resolute Dragon 26 was publicly announced by the Japan Self-Defense Forces and American forces, with official communications detailing participating personnel, exercise sites, and operational innovations. This transparency is deliberate: the goal is not to prepare a strategic surprise, but on the contrary to clearly signal the capabilities and cohesion of the alliance to those watching — notably in Beijing and Pyongyang. A secret exercise has no deterrence value. It is visibility that makes it politically effective.

The question is therefore: how does China perceive Resolute Dragon 26? Official Chinese commentary on these exercises generally describes them as "provocations" or "military posturing" in its neighborhood. This rhetoric is itself a signal: it means the exercise has been noted, it has had a psychological and political impact, and Beijing considers that its influence in the region is directly contested by the allied capabilities demonstrated. This is not an admission of weakness on China's part — it is an assertion of its claim over the strategic space these exercises seek to defend. Deterrence works, in part, because it provokes exactly this reaction.

The figure that counts: six editions, constant progression

The sixth edition of Resolute Dragon in 2026 — the exercise began in 2021 with initial personnel numbers well below the current 9,600 — illustrates a constant progression in the sophistication and ambition of the exercise. Each edition has brought new capabilities, new equipment, new participating units. The trajectory is clear: the exercise grows because the perceived threat grows. The 9,600 military personnel of 2026 represent a signal that planners on both sides of the Alliance read correctly: the investment in deterrence in the southern Japanese archipelagos is increasing. Confidence in the strategic value of the exercise is sufficient to justify ever-increasing personnel and ever-greater operational complexity.

In coming years, if the current trajectory holds, Resolute Dragon could well exceed 15,000 personnel and integrate additional components — perhaps more significant naval combat forces, elements of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force with close air support missions, or contingents from other regional allies like Australia or the Philippines seeking to strengthen their cooperation with Washington and Tokyo in the context of the growing Chinese threat. The direction is set. The question is whether the political will required to follow it will be maintained in all the relevant capitals.

The archipelago and its civilian populations

Civilians in the shadow of maneuvers

Exercise Resolute Dragon 26 takes place in inhabited regions. The islands of Kyushu and Okinawa are not empty territories — they are living spaces where millions of people work, raise their children, farm their fields, run their businesses. Military maneuvers have concrete impacts on these populations: the sounds of exercises, restrictions on access to certain areas, disruption to traffic. The residents of Okinawa in particular — who have hosted for decades a disproportionate concentration of American military presence in Japan — live in a complicated relationship with the forces that theoretically protect them. This complexity is real and deserves to be named honestly in any analysis of Resolute Dragon 26.

There is a permanent and legitimate debate in Japan, notably in Okinawa, about the balance between national security imperatives and the rights of local populations to lead their lives without the permanent constraints that a significant military presence imposes. This debate does not invalidate the strategic necessity of the exercise — but it is a reminder of its real human cost. The solutions to this tension — relocation of certain bases, improvement of community relations, economic compensation of the affected territories — are responsibilities that the Japanese and American governments must assume seriously. The long-term legitimacy of the military presence depends on it.

Regional stability as a public good

For the millions of inhabitants of the islands of the Indo-Pacific region — Japanese, Taiwanese, Filipino, Indonesian — regional stability is not an abstract concept. It is the condition that allows leaving for work in the morning, sending children to school, making plans for the future. An armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait or in the southern Japanese archipelagos would have catastrophic consequences for civilian populations who have asked for nothing. This is why deterrence — as costly, as inconvenient, as visible as it may be — remains preferable to its absence. Resolute Dragon 26 is, in the final analysis, an investment in the civilian peace of the region — even if its participants wear uniforms and carry weapons.

Lieutenant General Toriumi chose the right words at the opening ceremony. "Demonstrating our defense capabilities is very important for peace and stability in the region." This is not hollow military rhetoric — it is a well-founded strategic observation. Armed conflicts rarely break out against adversaries who prove stronger than anticipated. They often erupt when a potential aggressor underestimates the resistance they will encounter. Resolute Dragon 26 ensures that no one underestimates the resistance of American-Japanese forces in the southern archipelagos. This is its concrete contribution to peace.

The operational lessons to be drawn

What 2026 teaches 2030

Each edition of Resolute Dragon generates valuable operational data for military planners: which procedures work, which need to be revised, which equipment presents limitations under real conditions of use, where communication and interoperability gaps remain. This data feeds doctrinal revisions and equipment requests that will guide defense budgets in coming years. In this sense, Resolute Dragon 26 is not just a demonstration exercise — it is an operational laboratory that produces knowledge directly useful for preparing for the conflict everyone hopes never to have to fight.

The firsts — the Japanese Osprey for medical evacuation, the Maritime Transport Group vessels, the Type 25 missiles under realistic conditions — provide precisely this type of data. Technical and doctrinal teams analyze performances, identify problems, formulate recommendations. This continuous learning process is one of the characteristics that distinguishes the armies of allied democracies from their potential adversaries: an institutional culture that values constructive criticism and rapid adaptation. The American Marines have developed this culture across several generations of real conflicts. They transmit it to their Japanese counterparts in exercises like Resolute Dragon.

Interoperability as a strategic investment

Interoperability — the ability of two different forces to operate together coherently and effectively — is perhaps the most durable gain of Resolute Dragon 26. It is not easily measured in figures or immediate performance indicators — it accumulates, exercise by exercise, in the mutual familiarity of command teams, in the trust between units, in the shared understanding of operational procedures. An American officer who has worked with his Japanese counterparts during three successive editions of Resolute Dragon knows their strengths and their limits. He knows how to communicate effectively despite language barriers. He has confidence in their competence. This trust is a real military asset — perhaps the most precious that these exercises generate.

It is also for this reason that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte insists, in his statements of June 2026, on the importance of sharing Ukrainian operational lessons with all allies — including in the Pacific. The coherence of the allied architecture is stronger when the different partners learn together from the same operational experiences. Resolute Dragon 26 fits within this logic of collective learning that is, at bottom, one of the greatest strengths of the West in the strategic competition with authoritarian adversaries who learn alone.

China, the towering specter of the exercise

What Beijing cannot ignore

From its offices in Beijing, the People's Liberation Army observes Resolute Dragon 26 with the attention that any allied capability signal deserves. China follows these exercises with precision, analyzing personnel numbers, equipment deployed, new capabilities introduced. Its military analysts draw their own conclusions about the operational coherence and real capabilities of allied forces. In a certain sense, this mutual observation is part of the normal deterrence process — each party evaluates the credibility of the other's threats.

What Beijing cannot ignore after Resolute Dragon 26 is the constant progression in the sophistication of the exercise. The 9,600 personnel deployed across 23 sites in Japan's southern archipelagos, the new anti-ship missile systems, the first operational use of the Japanese Osprey, the new maritime transport vessels — all of this points to an alliance that is seriously investing in its capacity to defend precisely the territory that China watches most closely. This signal has a strategic value that cannot be measured in numbers of soldiers or exercise budget — it is measured in degrees of probability that a Chinese military aggression in the southern archipelagos would encounter stronger-than-expected resistance.

Stability as a collective result

Ultimately, the success of Resolute Dragon 26 will be measured not by its immediate operational performances, but by its contribution to the stability of the Indo-Pacific region in the years to come. If this exercise, combined with all the other allied deterrence signals, contributes to maintaining peace in Japan's southern archipelagos and the Taiwan Strait, it will have accomplished its mission. This is not an easily measurable objective — how do you prove that a war did not happen because of an exercise? — but it is the objective for which it is conducted. And it is the objective that justifies the 9,600 soldiers, the 23 sites, the new missiles, and the Ospreys practicing their first evacuations on the islands of Okinawa.

Coordination with the Philippines — a strategic triangle

Resolute Dragon in the context of regional exercises

Exercise Resolute Dragon 2026 does not exist in a geographic vacuum. It articulates with a series of joint military exercises that sketch, month by month, the architecture of collective defense in the western Pacific. At the same time that 9,600 soldiers were maneuvering in Kyushu and the Nansei islands, the Philippines was conducting its own joint exercises with the United States under the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). These parallel exercises, synchronized without being formally coordinated, send a coherent geostrategic message: from Hokkaido in the north to the Batanes Islands in the south, a defensive arc is progressively strengthening against Beijing's documented expansionist ambitions.

The question of Japan-Philippines interoperability is one of the least analyzed but most promising dimensions of this emerging architecture. Since the 2023 security agreement between Tokyo and Manila, bilateral exercises have multiplied, Japanese equipment has been made available to Philippine forces for training, and operational communication channels are developing. This United States - Japan - Philippines triangle is not yet a formal three-way alliance — Japan's constitutional constraints and Philippine political sensitivities make this formalization complex. But its operational effects are beginning to be felt, and they complicate the strategic calculations of any military planner in Beijing.

The Taiwan factor in the exercise geometry

Any analysis of Resolute Dragon 2026 that does not mention Taiwan is incomplete. The Nansei islands — that arc of archipelagos stretching from Japan's Kyushu to the northern tip of Taiwan — are the operational space that would link any military intervention in the Taiwan Strait to Japanese and American forces stationed in the region. The Japan Self-Defense Forces exercise in this space precisely because this is where the battle for maritime access would play out, if it came to that, in a conflict scenario. The 23 training sites of Resolute Dragon 2026 cover exactly this critical zone — from Okinawa to the southernmost small islands.

This geographic reality is not a secret. It is documented by JGSDF strategists, discussed in Japanese security journals, and analyzed by Washington think tanks. What is new in 2026 is the density and sophistication of exercises in this space. The Japanese Ospreys are not there by chance. The island defense units do not train in the Nansei by tradition. It is a deliberate, documented, and progressive response to a real and measurable geostrategic risk. Japan has chosen to prepare rather than to hope not to have to.

JGSDF integration — a Japanese army in transformation

The de facto constitutional revision

Japan in 2026 is no longer the Japan of 2010. The revision of the national defense policy of December 2022 — one of the most significant strategic reorientations since the creation of the Self-Defense Forces in 1954 — formally authorized counterstrike capabilities, increased the defense budget toward the target of 2% of GDP, and explicitly identified China and North Korea as threats to regional peace. Resolute Dragon 2026 is the operational expression of this doctrinal transformation. The 9,600 soldiers maneuvering are not the same soldiers — institutionally, doctrinally, and in terms of equipment — as their predecessors from ten years ago.

This transformation is reflected in the equipment deployed during Resolute Dragon 2026. The modernized Type 12 ground-to-ship missiles — whose range has been extended to cover targets within a radius of 900 kilometers — are at the heart of the island defense concept. Japanese Patriot PAC-3 air defense systems operate alongside American HIMARS in fire-maneuver coordination exercises. And the Ospreys — those tiltrotor converters — enable the movement of forces at speeds and over distances that conventional helicopters cannot achieve in the Nansei archipelago.

The build-up of amphibious infantry units

Japan's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade — created in 2018 on the model of the American Marines — constitutes one of the most significant doctrinal innovations of the Ground Self-Defense Forces. During Resolute Dragon 2026, this unit trained with the American 31st MEU in island retaking and amphibious landing scenarios on the Nansei coasts. The coordination between the two units — compatible doctrines, interoperable equipment, languages bridged by years of joint exercises — has reached a level of operational sophistication that military observers describe as "fusion" rather than mere cooperation.

The stakes of this amphibious capability extend beyond the defense of Japanese islands alone. A Japan capable of joint amphibious operations with the United States fundamentally changes the force employment calculations across the entire western Pacific. This is not a provocation — it is a defensive capability that broadens the range of responses available in the face of aggression. And in the logic of deterrence, broadening defensive options reduces incentives for aggression. Resolute Dragon 2026 is not a threat. It is a demonstration that the cost of aggression in this space would be prohibitive.

Ukrainian lessons applied to Japanese terrain

What the war in Ukraine teaches about island defense

The JGSDF and Pentagon planners who designed Resolute Dragon 2026 have all studied the operational lessons of the Ukrainian conflict. The defense of an island in the Nansei archipelago shares structural characteristics with the defense of territory against a mass-superior power: dependence on precision munitions rather than heavy armor, the critical importance of intelligence and surveillance systems, the primacy of mobility over positional density. These lessons — drawn at the cost of tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives — have been integrated into the doctrine of Resolute Dragon 2026. The exercises of 2026 are more sophisticated than those of 2022 precisely because Ukraine has provided an operational laboratory in real time.

Anti-drone defense, in particular, has received specific attention during Resolute Dragon 2026. Low-altitude drones — omnipresent in Ukrainian fighting — represent a threat for which the Japan Self-Defense Forces have accelerated their acquisition of countermeasures. C-UAS (counter-drone) systems have been integrated for the first time in large-scale exercises during this edition. Early detection and neutralization protocols are being standardized. The lesson is the one Mark Rutte stated on June 17, 2026: "Learning from Ukraine on drone technology, we must do this together."

The advantage of island terrain — what Ukraine does not have

Island defense has a characteristic that continental land defense does not: it benefits from natural maritime obstacles that slow any invasion force and create predictable attrition zones. The straits between the Nansei islands are chokepoints that any naval or amphibious force must cross. It is in these chokepoints that Japan's Type 12 sea-skimming missiles and American Harpoon batteries can exercise their maximum effect. Geography here is a defensive force multiplier that the planners of Resolute Dragon 2026 have systematically integrated into their exercise scenarios.

This geographic reality creates an asymmetry favorable to defenders in the Nansei — an asymmetry that joint JGSDF-USMC exercises specifically seek to exploit. 9,600 soldiers trained to defend an archipelago they know terrain by terrain, backed by precision missiles and allied air capabilities, represent a defensive force whose attrition cost for an aggressor would be prohibitive. This is not a guarantee of victory — no exercise can guarantee a future victory. But it is the credible demonstration of resistance sufficient to make any calculated aggression against these islands irrationally costly.

Conclusion: Resolute Dragon burns with determined calm

9,600 reasons to prepare

Exercise Resolute Dragon 26 is over — it concluded on June 30, 2026 after ten days of intense maneuvers across 23 sites throughout Kyushu and Okinawa. 9,600 American and Japanese soldiers practiced island defense, deployed new anti-ship missile systems, conducted medical evacuations in island terrain with the Osprey, and strengthened the operational ties between two armies that form the backbone of security in the western Pacific. What they accomplished will not appear in the next victory communiqués — the real victory of this exercise would be that the islands they learned to defend are never attacked.

The Resolute Dragon, symbol of an era

The name of the exercise — Resolute Dragon — contains perhaps an unintentional irony. The dragon is one of the most powerful symbols of China — the power that the exercise is designed, in part, to deter. Resolute evokes the determination of allied forces to defend their territory. The juxtaposition says something about the nature of the current strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific: two dragons — one ancient and authoritarian, the other young and democratic — looking at each other across a contested sea, each baring its teeth to convince the other that the price of an attack would be too high. Resolute Dragon 2026 has bared its teeth. Whether the message was heard in Beijing, only the future will tell.

Signed Maxime Marquette, columnist

Columnist's transparency box

Editorial positioning

I am resolutely in favor of democratic alliances in the Indo-Pacific and the allied deterrence posture against the growing military power of authoritarian China. This position does not invalidate the recognition of the legitimate tensions generated by American military presence in Okinawa, which I have addressed honestly in this report. Security is not built by ignoring its human costs.

Methodology and sources

This report draws on the available sources on exercise Resolute Dragon 26: official communications from the Japan Self-Defense Forces (official post of June 20, 2026), reports from the Japanese agency Kyodo News and the media that relayed them, as well as contextual sources on regional security strategy. The facts concerning personnel numbers (9,600), sites (23), dates (June 20–30, 2026), and new capabilities are verifiable in the cited sources.

Nature of the analysis

This text is a chronicled report — a narrative account of a real military exercise, enriched with editorial analysis of its strategic implications. It does not claim the exhaustiveness of a technical military report, but aims for the clarity of a contextual reading accessible to English-speaking readers.

Sources

Primary sources

Japan Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF) — Official Resolute Dragon 26 communication on X — June 20, 2026

ANews — Japan and United States launch joint island defense exercise Resolute Dragon — June 20, 2026

NATO — Rutte press conference: Ukraine lessons, drones and Indo-Pacific security — June 17, 2026

Secondary sources

Euromedia24 — Japan-US joint military exercise Resolute Dragon-26: 9,600 personnel — June 20, 2026

UA News — United States and Japan launch large-scale island defense exercises — June 20, 2026

SIPRI — Yearbook 2026: Indo-Pacific security context and growing Chinese nuclear capability — June 8, 2026