PANAMAX 2024 is underway.
The U.S. Southern Command- (USSOUTHCOM) sponsored, multinational, biennial command post exercise (CPX) aimed at reinforcing and enhancing the long-term security of the Panama Canal and the Western Hemisphere takes place August 5-14 at various locations across the United States.
“Collectively, we will go through the next eight days together and make our area of responsibility (AOR), our region, stronger and better with what we all are going to bring to this exercise,” Major General Phil Ryan, U.S. Army South (ARSOUTH) commander, said as he welcomed hundreds of joint and multinational participants who will take part in the exercise at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. “All of us bring a wealth of information and experience to this AOR and to what we are doing here.”
More than 1,500 U.S. forces — including staff elements from SOUTHCOM, ARSOUTH, U.S. Marine Forces, South, Special Operations Command South, U.S. Air Forces Southern/12th Air Force, and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet and other joint force enablers, along with 500 participants from 18 partner nations — are participating in PANAMAX 2024 at various U.S. locations to include Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Arizona.
“When PANAMAX started 21 years ago, there were only three nations, and what you see here today is just a representation of the broader force,” said Maj. Gen. Ryan as he welcomed the members who will make up the Multinational Force South (MNFS) and Combined Force Land Component Command (CFLCC) during the exercise.
ARSOUTH is hosting both the MNFS and Chilean-led CFLCC at Fort Sam Houston, bringing together participants from the United States, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru.
Maj. Gen. Ryan, who is serving as the commander of MNFS, emphasized the importance of the collaboration undertaken by this multinational exercise and how it contributes to establishing lasting partnerships and capabilities, for the security of the Western Hemisphere.
“Just meeting each other makes a big step forward. Over the next week, we will be sharing meals together, and sharing time in our operations center,” he explained. “We share common interests and regional challenges. We are all in the same region together, and we have common goals to continue with peaceful operations and ensure that all of our nations can continue to prosper in the future.”
PANAMAX is designed to conduct stability operations in support of a fictitious United Nations Security Council Resolution, providing interoperability training for the participating multinational staff.
Maj. Gen. Ryan explained that the exercise is intended to develop and test capabilities to respond as a unified force to a variety of mission demands across the air, land, maritime, space, cyber, and information domains.
Using various scenarios involving notional threats, the goal of PANAMAX is to provide participating forces an opportunity to conduct security and stability operations, and strengthen their ability to plan and execute complex multinational operations as a team.
PANAMAX began in 2003 and has grown to become the region’s largest coalition CPX. Since its inception, partner nations have continued to take increased leadership roles in the exercise.
Maj. Gen. Ryan encouraged the audience to continue the unity of effort throughout PANAMAX 24 and to find innovative ways to share information as a multinational force. “Someone might have a technique, a tool, or a piece of technology that we can all learn from and benefit from so that we can become better together,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Ryan closed, reminding participants that the main objective of PANAMAX is to understand collaboration.
“That really is the core of this. In the future, if there is a conflict […], we are all there. We’ve already met. We are able to plug into each other and work together.”
