HMAS Sydney to join US aircraft fleet in Yokosuka, Japan - The Daily Telegraph

HMAS Sydney will be based in japan with a US aircraft fleet. Picture: Department of Defence Source: Supplied

AN Australian warship is about to join a US aircraft carrier strike group in Japan, amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The HMAS Sydney will be ''embedded'' with the US Seventh Fleet in Yokosuka - a move analysts say is significant, The Australian reports.

''What we are seeing here is part of a pattern of us starting to rebuild relations with the US Pacific command operating out of Honolulu,'' Peter Jennings, a former senior defence official and head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, said.

Mr Jennings said the HMAS Sydney would have a role to play in a conflict if that happened.

He said the fact the frigate would operate from Japan indicated that ''we are getting close to the Japanese''.

HMAS Sydney is an Adelaide-class guided-missile frigate launched in 1980.

It served in the Persian Gulf five times in support of US operations during the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

For more, see The Australian