Missouri National Guard supports PANAMAX 2026 cyber defense partnership

Soldiers with the Missouri National Guard’s 179th Cyber Protection Team and Defensive Cyber Operations Element (DCOE) are supporting collaborative cyber defense exercises with multinational partners as part of PANAMAX 2026, Aug. 3-13, 2026, in Panama.

Missouri Guardsmen shared their experience and expertise on both offensive and defensive tactics as well as refereed some of the various problem sets faced by more than 80 cyber protection professionals representing 11 partner nations.

The exercise develops partner nation capability in both technical as well as soft skills, explained U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nathan Nenninger, with DCOE. Most of the exercise participants are used to working in small teams, and the scale of this exercise posed additional communication challenges.

“Why that matters is that the defense of critical infrastructure is a shared regional security interest,” Nenninger said. “Exercises like these build the human readiness behind that specific need, and help our partners come away with a better capability to defend their own networks.”

Not only are Missouri Guardsman sharing tactics and techniques they use to present a realistic threat environment for the exercise participants, they’re also gaining useful insight into how threat actors operate.

“Cyber incident response is our primary mission at the Defensive Cyber Operations Element,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Anna Purdom, 179th Cyber Protection Team readiness NCO. “Any time we have the opportunity to train our skills and see the fruits of our labors, it provides a deeper perspective on our training throughout the year.”

PANAMAX 2026 is a Republic of Panama-hosted, U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise featuring scenarios which help the defense and public security forces of participating nations improve interoperability, hone coalition and all-domain operational skills, forge strong cooperative partnerships, and demonstrate their collective capacity to respond to and deter threats to the region and its critical waterways.

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