SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- The 8th Theater Sustainment Command recently hosted Perspicuous Provider 17, a joint intelligence exercise with Australian military services, from May 29 - June 17.

The two-week exercise is designed to increase sustainment-centered intelligence through a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief scenario within the Pacific theater.

"Week one is collective training in the COMEX (communications exercise) and the second is the actual execution through a CPX construct with simulation towards a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief effort that simulates U.S. Army Pacific giving a mission to 8th TSC to go in and support," explained Lt. Col. Claudia Penaguzman the 8th Theater Sustainment Command G2 officer in charge.

Participating units included the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, 130th Engineer Brigade, 8th Military Police Brigade, 205th Military Intelligence Battalion, 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, and an intelligence cell from Australia's 1st Division.

Penaguzman said this was the first time that the Australians were able take part in the exercise.

"For this exercise, they are part of the intelligence cell which is where all the different intelligence feeds from each kind of source are coming in," Penaguzman said. "They are working side-by-side with the U.S. Army intel professionals in building a fused picture that will provide situational awareness and understanding of the operational environment to the commander."

"It's really good to have all the units come here because it allows for us to be able to learn other people's focus, especially when we're able to sit in on their meetings in person instead of having to go do a video teleconference," said Spc. Corey McMullin, an intelligence analyst with 8th Theater Sustainment Command.

McMullin, who has participated in the previous two Perspicuous Provider exercises, reported that this year's exercise has also been successful.

"We've integrated a lot of new systems and got them up and running," McMullin said. "We've been able coordinate a lot better with different sections and the training event itself is different than last year."

"Typically exercises like Ulchi Freedom Guardian really focus on mission command and the maneuver aspect of it," Penaguzman said. "This one is not a decisive-action training scenario. It's a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, which brings a realism of the Pacific Theater, because that is something that we would be requested to support for any of the 36 nations within the U.S Pacific Command Area of Responsibilities."

Penaguzman said that Perspicuous Provider, besides promoting cross-training with partner nations, is also a great exercise for achieving the Army Chief of Staff's number one priority: readiness.

"It really helps us to hone in and get after how would we look to evaluate ourselves or have someone look at us for meeting the new objective as far as insuring it feeds back into readiness," Penaguzman said.