PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - A total of 18 nations and more than 50 participants attended U.S. Pacific Command's (USPACOM) Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP) Planning Staff Workshop 1 (PSW1) in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 22-26 Feb. 2016.

The workshop was co-hosted by the Papua New Guinea Defense Force (PNGDF) command, control, communications, and computers/cyber division and USPACOM.

The PNGDF Commander, Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff, plus Indonesia's and New Zealand's Defense Attaches, and Head of Australian Defense Staff (in PNG) all participated in activities at PSW1.

Planning objectives for PSW1 focused on developing a construct to support MCIP Pacific Endeavor 2016 (PE16) events.

Events for PE16 include the Pacific Senior Communicator Meeting; Table Top Exercise (TTX); Field Training Exercise (FTX); Information Sharing Modules (ISMs); and a Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC)-led Communications Interoperability Assessment.

This year the scenario is a massive flooding preceded by devastating cyclones in metropolitan Brisbane Australia.