Official websites use .mil
Secure .mil websites use HTTPS
About PMTEC: Established in 2022, the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability is a transformative enterprise funded and resourced by the United States Indo-Pacific Command to enhance joint, combined, and coalition warfighting readiness, posture, and lethality in the Indo-Pacific. It has created and is constantly enhancing the largest coalition range system in the world, linking geographically distributed ranges and training areas across the Indo-Pacific theater and beyond. PMTEC is a key component of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, reinforcing the U.S. commitment to homeland defense and a free and open Indo-Pacific. PMTEC’s integration of advanced training technologies and its alignment with U.S. National Security Strategy make it a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to maintain regional stability and counter adversarial aggression.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command J7 Pacific Multi‑Domain Training and Experimentation Capability supported U.S., Thai, and coalition forces including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and the Republic of Korea to advance multi‑domain command and control to a maturity level not previously achieved in the exercise.
According to U.S. Space Force 1st Lt. Jimmy Baggett, 4th Electronic Warfare Squadron, the Cobra Gold 26 Combined Joint Force Space Component Command synchronized space electronic warfare effects with the Joint Fire Support Coordination Cell. Historically, space-enabled effects were executed as short-duration, point‑in‑time hacks.
“This year we shifted to a more operationally relevant ‘time‑boxed’ model that aligned effects across sustained windows of maneuver,” said Baggett.
The result was persistent electromagnetic suppression throughout High Mobility Artillery Rocket System and coastal defense live‑fire operations. Instead of isolated disruptions, space effects were synchronized with maneuver elements, ensuring fires, coastal defense assets, and command-and-control nodes operated with assured electromagnetic advantage during their most critical execution windows.
Space electromagnetic warfare suppression remained active across the full duration of the maritime kill chain, supporting detection, targeting, and engagement of the PMTEC‑provided Hammerhead unmanned surface vessels and the MQM-170 Outlaw. The sustained effects allowed commanders to maintain tempo and decision advantage throughout the engagement.
Royal Thai Air Force space planners worked alongside U.S. and partner personnel to develop the maritime strike’s synchronized targeting solutions.
According to Royal Thai Air Force Flight Lt. Kan Chultakan, Intelligence Cell Lead for the CJFSCC, Cobra Gold 26 marked a major step forward for Thai-U.S. space cooperation, particularly in space domain awareness and electromagnetic intelligence.
“This year we had a lot of good things happen,” said Chultaken. “Next year [it would be good to] exercise more capabilities, more GPS, jamming and offensive space.” He added he would like to continue enhancing space interoperability with a Thai-U.S. bilateral knowledge exchange in the future to share doctrine and concept of operations.
Non‑kinetic effects emerged as one of the most strategically important elements of Cobra Gold 26. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command J7 Director, Brig. Gen. Richard Goodman, said the joint force can no longer treat non‑kinetic effects—space, cyber, and the electromagnetic spectrum—as supporting fires, but as decisive tools that shape every phase of the fight.
“We’ve reached the point where non‑kinetic effects are not an enhancement to the plan—they are the plan,” Goodman said. “If we expect commanders to fight in a contested, multi‑domain environment, then we must train them to think, plan, and act with non‑kinetic effects woven into every decision.”
That philosophy aligns directly with PMTEC’s emphasis on integrating space, cyber, and electromagnetic effects across live, virtual, and constructive environments. PMTEC’s architecture—linking distributed ranges, modeling and simulation tools, and coalition networks—allow planners and operators to rehearse non‑kinetic effects alongside kinetic fires, ensuring both are synchronized across strategic, operational, and tactical timelines.
“This approach transforms non‑kinetic effects from isolated technical injects into deliberate, commander‑driven tools that shaped tempo, survivability, and decision advantage,” said Dr. Andre Stridiron, PMTEC project manager. “By advancing this level of integration with our Thai allies and partners, we are accelerating our collective ability to deter aggression, protect critical systems, and operate with confidence in the most contested domains of modern conflict.”