SYDNEY – Major multinational military exercises in Australia, including a large contingent of United States troops, resumed after the authorities found debris from a helicopter that crashed late on Friday in waters off the country’s north-east coast.

Exercise Talisman Sabre, a biennial event featuring defence manoeuvres and more than 30,000 troops, restarted in a limited way on Saturday, mostly in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, exercise director Damian Hill said at a televised press briefing. 

The search for the aircraft’s four missing crew members continues. The MRH90 Taipan went down in darkness during the exercise late on Friday close to Hamilton Island, near the coast of Queensland state. Some wreckage has been retrieved in an operation that includes police and naval vessels as well as specialist divers.

The accident has overshadowed Exercise Talisman Sabre, a two-week training programme that is partly a showcase of Australian-US unity to discourage potential Chinese aggression. This year’s version of the exercise is the largest yet, featuring live fire drills and amphibious landings. The manoeuvres also coincided with a visit to Australia by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin for talks with their Australian counterparts.

All MRH90 operations have been halted across the Australian Defence Force, Brigadier Hill said. The helicopters have suffered from repeated maintenance issues in recent years and are being replaced by US-designed Black Hawks starting this year. BLOOMBERG