When United States and Australian troops practised amphibious landings, ground combat and air operations last summer, they drew headlines about the allies deepening defence cooperation to counter China's growing military ambitions.
But for US war planners preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan, the high-profile Talisman Sabre exercises had a far more discreet value: they helped create new stockpiles of military equipment that were left behind in Australia after the drills ended in August, US officials said.
The US and its allies are increasingly worried that in the coming years Chinese President Xi Jinping could order his military to seize Taiwan, the democratically governed island China considers its own territory.
So the US military is taking a hard look at its own military readiness and trying to play catch-up in a critical area: its logistic network.
The equipment from Talisman Sabre included roughly 330 vehicles and trailers and 130 containers in warehouses in Bandiana, in southeastern Australia, the army says.
The amount of equipment, which the US military has not previously acknowledged, is enough to supply about three logistic companies, with as many as 500 or more soldiers, focused on ensuring supplies reach war-fighters.
It's the kind of materiel that's needed for a future drill, a natural disaster, or in a war.
"We're looking to do this more and more," Army General Charles Flynn, the top army commander in the Pacific, said in an interview.
"There are a number of other countries in the region where we have agreements to do that," he added, without naming specific countries.
Reuters' interviews with more than two dozen current and former US officials found that American military logistics in the Pacific are one of the greatest US vulnerabilities in any potential conflict over Taiwan.
US war games have concluded that China would likely try to bomb jet fuel supplies or refuelling ships, crippling US air and sea power without having to battle heavily armed fighter jets or sink America's fleet of surface warships, according to current and former officials and experts.
In response, the US is trying to spread its military logistics hubs across the region, including warehouses in Australia, officials said
Asked about Reuters' conclusions, the Pentagon said that the Department of Defence was working with allies to make US forces more mobile and distributed.
Supporting Taiwan, roughly 160km from the coast of China, would be orders of magnitude harder, US officials and experts acknowledge.
The US has not formally said it would intervene if China were to attack Taiwan, but President Joe Biden has repeatedly suggested he would deploy US troops to defend the island.
Xi has ordered his military to be ready to take Taiwan by 2027, US officials say.
But many analysts see that as an attempt to galvanise his military rather than a timeline for invasion.
In a war game run for Congress in April, China prepared for an amphibious assault on Taiwan with massive air and missile strikes against US bases in the region.
That included the US naval base on the Japanese island of Okinawa and the Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
To address vulnerabilities, the US military is looking to places like Australia as more secure locations to stockpile equipment, even as it expands cooperation with the Philippines, Japan and other partners in the Pacific.
The Biden administration announced in July the US would also create an interim logistics centre in Bandiana, Australia with the aim of eventually creating an "enduring logistic support area" in Queensland.
According to an internal US military document seen by Reuters, the facilities in Bandiana could hold more than 300 vehicles and had 800 pallet positions.
There has been a shift in the US military's thinking.
For decades, the US has not had to worry about a foreign power targeting its logistics bases.
That allowed planners to focus on efficiency, adopting the just-in-time logistic model common among private-sector manufacturers.
That approach led to the cost-saving decision to create mega-bases, like Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
But a conflict with China could make mega bases, which include Camp Humphreys near Seoul, prime targets.
This risk is prompting the switch to a more costly approach to logistics that includes dispersing US stockpiles and pre-positioning supplies around the region.
* The writers are from Reuters