Ashore they lumbered, great big green tracked amphibians and hovercraft, disgorging Australian and American soldiers onto the beach where fishermen and crocodiles usually wander.
This was the Top End's version of D-Day but without the gunfire - the major amphibious element of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2015 (TS 15), the bilateral biennial training exercise testing the ability of Australian and US troops to work together.
Talisman Sabre 2015 featured some elements different to previous Talisman Sabre Exercises.
The main event, the amphibious landing, was shifted from central Queensland's Shoalwater Bay to Fog Bay, west of Darwin.
It involved 1200 members of the US Marine Corps rotational group from Darwin plus Australia's 2nd Battalion, the Army's designated amphibious unit.
A small group of 40 Japanese marines also participated, a big deal for Japan which is moving towards a more proactive foreign policy following the Abe government's reinterpretation of the country's pacifist constitution.
TS 15 also involves more than 600 Kiwi troops, plus ships and aircraft, operating in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.
TS 15 spokesman Brigadier Bob Brown said following the withdrawal of Australian troops from the Middle East, the army was now back to a more traditional training and readiness program.
"We are back to more conventional war-fighting rather than the narrower counter-insurgency missions," he told AAP.
"That's where Talisman really comes into its own because we just don't have the opportunity to operate at combined taskforce level."
In the landing at Fog Bay, Australian and US troops disembarked from three US assault ships plus Australian navy ship HMAS Choules, landing in US tracked amphibious vehicles and hovercraft and Australian LARC vehicles.
Further out in the Arafura Sea, aircraft carrier USS George Washington launched aircraft in support of the landing.
So is this exercise, the largest ever conducted in Australia and involving more than 30,000 personnel, all about containing China?
Brigadier Brown said TS 15 had no particular opponent in mind.
"The suggestion keeps coming up about China and the South China Sea. It is certainly not directed at the Chinese or anyone in particular at all," he said.
For those who landed at Fog Bay, next stop will be the Bradshaw Training Area for further exercises including live fire training.
There will be similar exercises involving Australian and New Zealand troops at Shoalwater Bay. TS 15 wraps up on July 19.
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