Darwin, July 22 -- After jumping from half a dozen C-17A transport aircraft, US Army paratroopers dropped silently from the starry sky, their light-colored parachutes visible under the moonlight. The soldiers descended onto foreign soil and immediately began collecting their gear before beginning a 50 km march to seize their objective, an airfield.

Hundreds of miles away, US Marines touched down at an entirely different airfield by MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. As they poured out of the aircraft, they spread out to expand their perimeter, allowing follow-on aircraft to land and reinforce their position deep in enemy territory.

Elsewhere along the coast, a fleet of naval and amphibious ships from the USA, Australia, Japan, and South ...