44th Cobra Gold Begins

COBRA Gold, the world’s longest-running international multinational exercise has marked its 44th edition after the exercise officially kicked off on Feb 25 in Thailand. The exercise is co-hosted annually by the Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTARF) and the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM).

Opened by the kingdom’s chief of defence force, General Songwit Noonpakdee and commanding general of US Army Pacific, Gen Ronald Clark, Cobra Gold 2025 will focus on three primary events–command and control exercises, humanitarian civic assistance projects and field training exercises.

With Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) being a crucial part of military operations in the region, realistic trainings will be carried out to enhance joint HADR responses for future operations. Furthermore, the cyber and space domain will also be an area of emphasis for Cobra Gold 2025, featuring modernised training to curb emerging threats in the domain.

Around 30 nations comprising 8,194 personnel are participating directly or as observers throughout the duration of the exercise, with the core participants being Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and the US. China and India will take part in the humanitarian assistance programmes while Australia will partake in the command and control segment. Additionally, ten countries are participants in the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team and another ten are observer nations.

Giving his opening remarks, Gen Clark said, “We share a goal in this region: to prevent war by remaining ready together,. Preventing war requires many thanks, so thank you to Thailand for putting in the effort this year for the 44th annual Cobra Gold Exercise.”-shp/adj/dl (Pix:COBRA GOLD)