Forging Connections and Capabilities: U.S. Military Leaders Reflect on Cobra Gold 2024

FORUM Staff

Republic of Korea (ROK), Thai and United States military personnel participated in a multilateral amphibious assault exercise in Chonburi, Thailand, during Cobra Gold 2024. The training synchronized combined joint all-domain operations (CJADO), integrating command and control platforms, weapons and sensors across services and nations. More than 2,200 troops rehearsed near-simultaneous amphibious and air assaults to secure an airfield and beach, facilitating a ground assault to seize the objective.

Fighter aircraft defeated weapons systems to ensure freedom of movement, joint reconnaissance forces secured the beach, and landing craft, escorted by attack helicopters, launched from ships. Meanwhile, fighter aircraft accompanied assault support aircraft and ground troops for the airfield seizure to facilitate noncombatant evacuation drills.

The CJADO also integrated airborne, special forces and maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, small-boat insertion, critical infrastructure security and logistical sustainment.

FORUM spoke with two exercise leaders: U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Christopher Stone, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet’s amphibious force, Expeditionary Strike Group 7 and Task Force 76/3, and U.S. Marine Corps Col. Sean Dynan, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The conversation has been edited to fit FORUM’s format.

What are your impressions of Cobra Gold 2024?

Rear Adm. Stone: This is my first Cobra Gold, my first time in Thailand. I have been absolutely floored with the complexity of this exercise, the partnership of all the nations coming together. It has really been impressive to see everybody working together for a common purpose. It is the longest-running consecutive defense exercise in the world. This is the 43rd year we’ve executed Cobra Gold. This year we have seven full participating nations, we have three limited-participation navies, but broadly we have 30 nations represented. It’s truly impressive to see that. I had an opportunity a couple of days ago to attend a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief [HADR] exercise, and I watched a large number of nations simultaneously deal with the complexity of triaging medical casualties, working to do a waterborne rescue, combating a fuel fire, working to combat a collapsing building, and rescue people and provide relief and aid. It was truly impressive and absolutely seamless despite language barriers. The protocols that we had worked together to refine were really impressive, and it’s not just an exercise. Those are the types of things that we do routinely and it’s not limited to the borders of the nation. Our task force participated with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and USS America with providing relief [after] the volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea in 2023. We have Marines supporting the Philippines right now with flood relief. So to practice those types of things in this exercise will pay dividends for all of us in the times to come.

Col. Dynan: This is my third Cobra Gold. The last time I did it, though, was back in 2002. It’s always been a large exercise; it’s always been a great exercise. The key difference between now and then for me is the number of participants, full participants. Last time I was here, it was mostly bilateral. Now it has grown to where we’re doing swim and jump operations with [Republic of Korea and Royal Thai] Marines. At the same time we’ve done the larger scale HADR and then today you have three different nations landing on the same beach, near simultaneously, and working through language barriers but also just using tactical control measures for a steady state operation that is conducted both safely and effectively — getting Marines across, multiple countries’ Marines ashore.

Rear Adm. Stone: We talk about interoperability; you’ll hear that a lot. Where we want to progress to, over time, is interchangeability, where one nation can perform a mission in partnership with others regardless of the flag that they’re flying. So you will see that rehearsed here and demonstrated where we’ve taken the beach. That’s really what Cobra Gold and exercises like it are all about — increasing our capabilities so that we are stronger together.

What is new in this year’s iteration?

Rear Adm. Stone: Cobra Gold has grown in complexity and scale. This year is the first time that we’ve had a shared picture of the battlespace across all partners. We call that a common operating picture. That is challenging because there are differences in technology, there are differences in information sharing. So the fact that we’ve done that this year is significant. We’ve also added a CJADO exercise, a term we use to describe a range of operations from the air, the surface, the undersea with participating nations. That’s a relatively complex operation.

How would you say Cobra Gold has changed over time?

Col. Dynan: I think it’s a matter of size and focus, and the number of operations. Our ability across multiple nations to do HADR was not something that we did back in 2002. It was very much a combat arms focus, getting out and doing some live fire. Now it’s expanded, I think, to match reality. The most likely thing that’s going to occur anywhere in the world at any given time is something that requires somebody to be somebody’s hero. That’s what these nations are practicing together right now.

What skills in particular does the exercise enable Allies and Partners to build upon?

Rear Adm. Stone: We need to practice all of our skill sets. It’s a matter of when, not if, the humanitarian crisis will emerge. We have to practice everything from the response to civic action all the way up to the major combat operations and everything in between.

Col. Dynan: One of the things that we’re doing at the tactical level during the assault is really to practice partner communication, which is something we’re always trying to grow and work through, our ability to communicate from craft to craft and ship to ship.

What makes Cobra Gold key for building relationships and fostering cooperation and interoperability among Allies and Partners?

Rear Adm. Stone: We share common goals of a free, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific, and working together to achieve those common goals is meaningful. We learn from each other, we progress, we advance. We’re thrilled to be able to join great friends in the Royal Thai Armed Forces here as part of Cobra Gold to strengthen our relationships, our understanding, our bonds and our capabilities together.

Col. Dynan: I’d just add that we train as we operate. The time to figure out when and how to do that ideally isn’t at the time of the crisis. It’s here as we exercise at Cobra Gold.