Fort Carson soldiers are overseeing an expansive military exercise in Indonesia while honing new communications technology for the Army. 

More than 4,700 personnel are participating in the annual training, known as Super Garuda Shield 2026, taking place across several regions of Indonesia and featuring infiltration drills, firing of Stinger missiles, cyber exercises and amphibious maneuvers. The expansive training exercise started on Aug. 31 and will wrap up on Friday. 

About 150 Fort Carson soldiers traveled to Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, to oversee the exercise that is bringing together U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps personnel and troops from partner nations. It is the first exercise since Indonesia and the U.S. announced a new defense partnership this year.   

The participating nations include Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, India, France, Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

The exercise is “building valuable relationships and readiness with our Indonesian and multinational partners through challenging and realistic training,” said Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, in a news release. 

Indonesia has long maintained a foreign ⁠policy of non-alignment, with President Prabowo Subianto vowing to befriend all nations and maintain good ties with both the United States and China.

Indonesia last month agreed to boost its military ties with Beijing during a visit by China’s foreign and ​defense ministers.

In addition to overseeing the training, Fort Carson soldiers also worked to further the development of the Next Generation Command and Control systems that will be rolled out to the entire Army.

The new system will bring together formerly siloed communication systems and allow for greater speed and reliability in transmitting data across the battlefield. 

As part of this work, Fort Carson used a Mobile Command Group Stryker and associated technology to maintain connectivity to the Next Generation Command and Control system on board a C-17 Globemaster III while traveling from Colorado to Indonesia, a spokesperson with Super Garuda Shield said in an emailed statement.  

While on board the plane, leaders were able to operate with systems and techniques established and refined while using Strykers during ground operations, the statement said. 

“This provided a huge boost in situational awareness for leaders while in transit, as they were able to remain digitally connected to ongoing training and operations occurring in Fort Carson and in Indonesia,” the statement said. 

The new communications technology was also tested aboard a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat, it said. 

“This is a first for the Army and for the Pacific Theater,” the statement said. 

A team of Fort Carson soldiers with the 124th Division Signal Battalion personnel worked with U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard teams operating from Jakarta on the Coast Guard’s Emlen Tunnell and Charles Moulthrope, both Sentinel-class fast response cutters, on the maritime communications test. 

The test relied on satellites in low Earth orbit to connect with leaders 300 miles north in Baturaja, the statement said. 

It was a proof of concept that marked an important first step in working across the military branches and enhancing maritime security, the statement said. 

Fort Carson soldiers are expected to continue to refine the Next Generation Command and Control systems over the next year. 

Following a monthlong training at the National Training Center in California over the summer focused on the new technology, Ellis said, it was functional but not optimized. 

Following that exercise, the Army determined the systems are ready to scale. 

“The Ivy Division is proud to have delivered a prototype at the division scale, and we’ll spend the next year refining how we fight using the technology to share our lessons learned across the Army.”

Reuters contributed to this report.