Forces from the U.S. Pacific Command are scheduled to participate in Exercise Valiant Shield (VS), scheduled for Sept. 15-23, on Guam and around the Marianas Island Range Complex.

Participants include two aircraft carriers, 19 surface ships, more than 200 aircraft and an estimated 18,000 personnel from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Valiant Shield is a U.S. only, biennial field training exercise (FTX) with a focus on integration of joint training among U.S. forces. This training enables real world proficiency in sustaining joint forces through detecting, locating, tracking and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land and in cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas.

The participating forces will exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of joint forces. These capabilities range from maritime security operations to anti-submarine and air defense exercises and complex warfighting.

The lessons learned from exercises like VS14 will assist the U.S. in continuing to develop regional and global power projection capabilities that provide a full range of options to succeed in defense of its interests and those of its allies and partners around the world.

The VS series is aimed at developing a 'pre-integrated' joint force built from habitual relationships. This force builds interoperable and complementary cross-domain capabilities and benefits from realistic, shared training enhancing the flexibility to develop new tactics, techniques and procedures as operational conditions dictate. Such forces will provide the deterrence and stabilizing effects of a force-in-being, ready at the outset of a contingency without delays for buildups or extensive mission rehearsal.

This is the fifth exercise in the Valiant Shield series that began in 2006.