U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) hosted their second weeklong Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP) Planning Staff Workshop from March 23 at the Ala Moana Hotel.

The workshop enables Pacific Endeavor (PE) 2015 key players, including military representatives from allied and partner nations, companies from the telecommunications and cyber industry, government and non-governmental organizations, and members of the international humanitarian community to prepare for PE.

The PE capstone event and Planning Staff Workshops are a series of events that occur each year that are designed to manage the momentum of the Indo-Asia Pacific rebalance and strengthen relationships with allied and partner relationships by testing the communications response to a natural disaster. PE15 is scheduled to take place for approximately two weeks during the months of August and September.

“PE15 is a unique event that specifically focuses on communications and interoperability in a humanitarian aid disaster response (HADR) situation,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Nancy Norton, USPACOM director of Command, Control, Communications and Cyber. “When there is an HADR event, often times normal communications are disabled, so this is an opportunity for us to learn our processes of how we would work together when things like power, electricity and regular telecommunications are not available, and to understand what equipment would be available in the participating nations.”

PE15 MCIP Planning Staff Workshops serve as a means for participants to meet prior to the capstone event to identify what communications and data networking equipment will be used, how systems interoperability will be tested and what specific information sharing modules will be implemented during PE15.

“This is the heavy planning workshop for our whole series,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Paul Salevski, USPACOM MCIP workshop director. “We do three workshops followed by PE15. This is where we really work on getting the technical details spelled out for Pacific Endeavor 2015. That is our major focus here.”

PE15 is scheduled to involve 20 nations and will be held in the Philippines later this year.

“The Philippines, when they first introduced what they wanted to work on, everyone was thinking typhoon but they surprised us in Nepal last year when they offered an earthquake response scenario for their metro Manila area,” Salevski said. “Like Kathmandu in Nepal, they are also worried about a major earthquake in their metropolitan center, their capital, so this is something that they wish to investigate and work out their communications procedures and processes for a major disaster in that area.”

Philippine army Lt. Col. Mark Edwin Moro, chairman of the Scenario Technical Working Group, explained why an earthquake scenario was chosen for PE15.

“It was last year that I incorporated in my presentation to have the metro Manila earthquake scenario as the focal point of PE15,” Moro said. “During an earthquake, you don’t have time to prepare unlike a typhoon where you can track the progress. The earthquake scenario is more brutal and sudden.”

As the multinational team ensures interoperability of communications and cyber defense equipment and procedures they are also able to strengthen relationships and see first-hand how their allies and partners operate.

“Every time we get an opportunity to go to a different host nation, it gives everyone who participates an opportunity to get a better understanding of that country, their cultures and really get to know them as people because it’s all about building relationships,” Norton said. “So when a disaster strikes, we are very comfortable working together, not with just the interoperability of our equipment but the interoperability of our people.”

Most of the world’s natural disasters occur in the Indo-Asia Pacific region, with recorded deaths increasing three-fold in the past decade. Events like Pacific Endeavor are one way USPACOM strengthens and advances relationships with allies and partners to prepare and provide effective HADR response.