Exercise Mobility Guardian 2023, Air Mobility Command’s largest full-spectrum readiness exercise in the command’s history, is wrapping up 21 July 2023 in the Indo-Pacific region.

This year’s MG23 reflects an evolution from the exercise’s previous three, U.S.-based iterations, and aims to understand and overcome the tyranny of distance to deliver the mobilization, deployment, and sustainment functions that the Joint Force and Allies and partners depend on to respond to challenges worldwide.

A multinational endeavor, MG23 features seven participating countries – Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States – operating approximately 70 mobility aircraft across multiple locations spanning a 3,000-mile exercise area. MG23 employed 3,000 personnel in direct support of the exercise, and supported more than 15,000 U.S. forces, and Allied and partner participants associated with other exercises this year – seven times that of MG21 and nearly three times that of MG19.

“The collaboration and connection formed alongside our DoD teammates and our Allies and partners during planning and execution will pay dividends today, tomorrow, and into our unquestionably complex future,” said Lt. Col. Jake Parker, MG23 exercise director.

Concurrently to MG23, Parker said the MAF will also serve as the “cohesive glue” for a series of other exercises occurring across the Indo-Pacific this summer. AMC’s role in enabling the meaningful maneuver of forces throughout the theater underscores the necessity of logistics and realistic interoperability in the region.

Each participating country had the opportunity to hone vital readiness skills and enhance interoperability in operationally limited environments among multiple mission areas to include airlift, aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, the Global Air Mobility Support System (GAMSS), command and control, and humanitarian and disaster assistance.

“This is not a pass or fail scenario,” said Parker. “This is a proving ground for the MAF’s new status quo tested through the application of flexible and agile concepts. The MAF will do its part to ensure the Joint Force and our Allies and partners can overcome transnational security challenges by redefining what MAF readiness looks like.”