BRISBANE, Australia – Exercise Pacific Endeavor 2016 (PE16) is in full swing after it began Aug 22, and military communicators from 22 Indo-Asia Pacific nations, non-government organizations, and academic advisors have come together to focus on improving Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR).

Based on recent real-world events, PE16 features a scenario based on a category 5 typhoon striking Brisbane, which requires participants to set up at Multinational Coordination Center (MNCC) and forward-deploy to two other locations in the affected area. Their mission is to validate and document high frequency voice and data transfer using ordinary field radios. Commonly referred to as Internet Protocol over Radio Frequency (RF), the practice involves transmitting not only voice, but images and e-mail data over the same RF signal.

“There are no simulations here.” said Scott Griffin, U.S. Pacific Command’s Multinational Communication Interoperability Program (MCIP) Director. “We’re actually focusing more on real-world-type communications and real-world-type of events, by deploying them out there, setting up their antennas, setting up their radios and then transmitting back.”

Forward-deployed teams set up the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) at Damascus Barracks and Victoria Barracks, which are far enough away from the MNCC (at Gallipoli Barracks) so radio operators can truly test their equipment.

“It’s really important to test your high frequency [radios] by having a reasonable amount of distance between the two locations to make sure the systems are properly working,” said Australian Army Lt. Col. Michael King, Australian National Lead for MCIP. “Doing it here on the base allows for that, as well as the other locations around Australia- allow for a more realistic training environment to validate the interoperability between our radio systems.”

Most countries have RF capabilities and not all have satellite, which is the reason this FTX is great for interoperability. The challenges they encounter, will help participants experience “hands-on” what they might encounter during a crisis.

“You’ve always got to prepare for those eventualities, you’ve never going to have everything perfect,” said Cpl. Daniel Stratton, a radio operator in the New Zealand Army.

With today’s technology, sending images or data over RF signal wouldn’t be needed because of the accessibility of the internet and Wi-Fi. But, when a disaster or humanitarian crisis occurs, that same signal may become a lifeline.

“If you’re at an outside location, and I need you to send me a picture of the damage in a certain location - I can actually see what it looks like,” Said U.S. Army Maj. Mitchell Letter, Future Operations Chief, 311th Signal Command.

“When a disaster hits a lot of times everything is wiped out.” said Tom Grant, MCIP Technical Director. “You might not have any satellite links, your cell systems might be down, you might not have access to the Internet. It’s a valuable skill.”

A valuable skill that highlights one of the most important things happening in this exercise. Non-government organization representatives like Catherine Graham, V.P. for Business Development, Humanity Road Inc., helped take the IP over RF lessons learned from a recent disaster response in Nepal, and integrate them into the exercise.

“We can improve how [information sharing] happens in the future. The success of them doing their radio tests today will help improve the relaying of urgent needs like medicines and urgent needs for information on the condition of roads so logistics can be improved,” Graham said.

Raymond Doherty, U.S. Army Pacific’s data subject matter expert for Pacific Endeavor said that during the FTX, participants are learning real-world lessons about how they can communicate better, even though they aren’t necessarily using the same equipment or speaking the same language all the time.

“These are the things that are going to impact future missions because we don’t know where the next disaster is going to be, and we don’t know who’s going to be there first. So these guys can do it together, that’s perfect, that’s what we’re looking for,” said Doherty.

Validating IP data over RF as a credible method of information transmission could truly lead to a vast improvement in HA/DR efforts during a crisis response, and in turn, help save lives.

“Previously, we’ve always understood disaster response was water, food and shelter, but nowadays with the usage of the internet and social media- communications is an everyday life function,” said Mr. Griffin. “Before someone is asking for food, shelter, or water, someone is asking, is my loved-one safe?”

Hosted by the Australian Defence Force and U.S. Pacific Command’s Multinational Communication Interoperability Program (MCIP), the Pacific Endeavor 2016’s FTX in Brisbane is the culminating event of a year-long planning effort, which took participants and planners to Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and Mongolia. The exercise will wrap up on September 2.