PANAMAX 2024 is officially 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 from Aug. 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,” Maj. Gen. Phil Ryan, U.S. Army South commander, said as he welcomed hundreds of joint and multinational participants who will take part in the exercise at Fort Sam Houston. “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 USSOUTHCOM, USARSOUTH, U.S. Marine Forces South, Special Operations Command South, 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern), 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 Ryan as he welcomed the members who will make up the Multinational Forces South (MNFS) and Combined Force Land Component Command (CFLCC) during the exercise. “A total of 18 partner nations have come together, 11 of which are represented in this room right now.”

USARSOUTH 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.

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..

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.

“I want to make sure everybody understands how many aspects are part of this,” he said.“This is not just the ground forces, there are all sorts of entities. Space and cyber as well as the information operations are really key to this [exercise] because we might be able to do some of these operations non-kinetically, through influence, through information, and ensure that we are getting into the mindset of the populations and not using bullets to transmit our messages.”

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.

“Yes, there is a lot that goes into this exercise,” said Ryan, emphasizing the importance of the partner nations involved and the evolution of their participation over the last 21 years. “As you know, our motto here is ‘Defense and Fraternity.’ This combined exercise is integral in terms of our interoperability.”

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.

“One of the 11 partner nations that are here might have a way of doing something that we could share across all of our nations,” he said. “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.”

Ryan closed, reminding the 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 in the Southern Command area of operations, we are all there. We’ve already met. We are able to plug into each other and work together.”