Pacific Nations gather for Pacific Defender 19-1

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM

02.24.2019

Story by Senior Airman Isaac Johnson 

354th Fighter Wing

Last week representatives from the forces of Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, and the Kingdom of Tonga along with the U.S. Air Force all joined together at Andersen Air Force Base for Pacific Defender 19-1.

Pacific Defender is an annual subject matter expert exchange where air forces of different nations get together to exchange their expertise in defending air bases throughout the region.

“The Pacific Defender SME exchange is part of the Indo-Pacific Command’s theater cooperation and security engagement program,” said Col. Robert Frederiksen, the Pacific Air Forces security forces division chief. “It is a multilateral event that is sponsored by PACAF security forces and the 736th Security Forces Squadron.”


This SMEE is a critical point for the U.S. Air Force as well as their allies to stay ahead when it comes to defending the base in the constantly changing Indo-Asia-Pacific theater

“The purpose of bringing in foreign members to Pacific Defender is to enhance interoperability between us and our allies and build personal relationships with our allies,” said Frederiksen. “We hope that the members from the foreign militaries take home an appreciation of our capabilities and base defense operations in the Pacific.”


During the event defenders from different nations engaged in discussions about their own tactics, techniques, and procedures as well as how they can best interoperate in order to increase base defense.

Attendees had the opportunity to visit the 736th Contingency Response Group, observe and test Air Force weapon systems, and observe the multilateral Cope North 2019 Security Forces Field Training Exercise.

“The goal with our annual Pacific Defender events is to bridge capability gaps through candid discussion which will hopefully lead to an increased joint application during COPE NORTH or other exercises,” said Pacific Defender program manager Captain Joseph Cortez. “We continually coordinate with our Indo-Asia-Pacific allies and partners to plan ongoing engagement opportunities to address the vast spectrum that is security operations.”

“No country can do anything alone, and in our effort to try to meet our INDO-PACOM commander’s number one line of effort, which is to strengthen alliances throughout the region, we are simply trying to understand their capabilities so that when we meet them down range, we are able to build those operations and foster that real strong coalition capability,” said Maj. Richard Cheng, the 736th Security Forces Squadron commander. Pacific Defender is now geared for execution of its next major engagement, Pacific Defender 19-2, hosted at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, and includes partners from 11 Asia-Pacific nations.”

• Date Taken: 02.24.2019
• Date Posted: 02.28.2019 13:30
• Story ID: 312278
• Location: ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GU