JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- The United States and two ally nations in the Indo-Asia Pacific region are scheduled to participate in exercise COPE NORTH 2017 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Feb. 15 through March 3, 2017.

Exercise COPE NORTH is a long-standing exercise designed to enhance multilateral air operations between the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force.

More than 1100 U.S. Airmen and Sailors will train alongside approximately 600 combined JASDF and RAAF service members. Additionally, more than 100 aircraft, comprised of 22 flying units from the United States, Japan and Australia, will participate in CN17.

The exercise will consist of a number of events designed to increase combat readiness among the allied nations including fighter versus fighter air combat tactics training and air-to-ground strike mission training over the Farallon de Medinilla range 160 nautical miles north of Guam.

Beginning in 1978 as a quarterly bilateral exercise held at Misawa Air Base, Japan, COPE NORTH was moved to Andersen AFB in 1999. Today, the annual exercise serves as a keystone event to promote stability and security throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific by enabling regional forces to hone vital readiness skills critical to maintaining regional stability.