Photo By Senior Airman Raina Dale | Australian Navy Lt. Nathan Kafer, left, white cell lead, and U.S. Air Force Col. Glen...... read more read more
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CAMP AGUINALDO, Philippines– The U.S. military and the Armed Forces of the Philippines collaborated with multinational forces for the first time in this year’s Cyber Defense Exercise as part of Exercise Balikatan 2026 at Camp Aguinaldo, Philippines, April 21-May 6, 2026.
As technological advances create new and emerging threats, armed forces across the globe have invested in cyber security capabilities. To train for these emerging challenges during Balikatan 2026, military cyber teams from multiple nations practiced interoperability through comprehensive digital defense operations. This year’s team included service members from the Philippines, the United States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and France.
“The cyber defense exercise is a multilateral cyber range training involving more than 150 participants from seven nations,” said U.S. Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Renteria, chief of cyberspace warfare, I Marine Expeditionary Force. “It includes simulating real-world scenarios, defending critical infrastructure against remote attacks and sharing best practices.”
The primary objective of the CYDEX is to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the AFP and now multinational counterparts to learn each other’s cyber defense tactics. For this particular exercise, the force laydown consisted of red and blue teams, a white cell, and an intelligence element.
The red teams simulate adversaries challenging the blue teams. Their objective is to inject offensive cyber effects into the blue networks. The blue teams serve as the primary training audience simulating the cyber protection teams deployed to secure and defend network infrastructure. The intelligence element’s goal is to consolidate findings from both red and blue teams’ network engagements, providing a comprehensive analysis of the tactical procedures and techniques employed. Throughout the exercise, the white cell is responsible for training, instructing, and mentoring the teams while controlling the timing and operational tempo of the exercise.
Several challenges presented to the teams were more technical in nature, such as ensuring realistic network topologies and services accurately represented. The cyber range provides a closed network where systems can be actively exploited and attacked, accurately simulating a real-world environment. Maximizing this realism provides cyber defenders with a rigorous training ground to put their skills to the test, Renteria noted.
“The U.S. has some of the most advanced technologies right now in cyber, so this collaboration opportunity is great for building unified capabilities,” said Armed Forces of the Philippines Private 1st Class Jacob Thadeus Sabado, AFP Cyber Command cyber analyst. “Here in the Philippines, we can capture or learn from our partners and others during this exercise.”
By synchronizing cyber defensive standards during Exercise Balikatan, participating partner nations go beyond the focus of technical proficiency but cultivate the trust and coordination essential for a unified, rapid response to real world cyber threats.
“There’s a lot to learn,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Yaereem Lee, deputy branch chief of offensive cyber operations, Pacific Air Forces. “There’s so many different ways that people interact and to get to learn from other nations, [it] is such a great experience.”
Balikatan is a longstanding annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military that represents the strength of our alliance, improves our capable combined force, and demonstrates our commitment to regional peace and prosperity.
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.09.2026 11:14 |
| Story ID: | 564459 |
| Location: | PH |
| Web Views: | 14 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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