Photo By Sgt. 1st Class William Tanner | U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Patrick Costello, 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command...... read more read more
HONOLULU - For several years, leadership from the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC) have attended the annual Pacific Integrated Air and Missile Defense Center’s (PIC) Multilateral Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) eXperiment (MIX) summit in hopes of promoting collaborative efforts and interoperability with U.S. allies. At this year’s summit, challenges were identified and discussed among U.S. allies helping to strengthen their relationships throughout the world.
Sgt 1st Class Hussein Zayat, Pacific IAMD Center (PIC) non-commissioned officer-in-charge (PIC NCOIC), described what summits like this are meant to accomplish.
“It’s a Multilateral IAMD experiment between United States. Japan, and Australia. They come together and war game based on some fictional scenarios that they predict could or will happen in the future,” said Zayat, “It gets after identifying limitations based on the threats and evolving technology, as well as some policy.”
On day two of the summit, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Patrick Costello, the 94th AAMDC commanding general spoke at the summit, which was also attended by military leadership from Australia and Japan, and was held at the Aloha Conference Center, located on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, in Honolulu, Hawai’i. At the start of his speech, Costello addressed the concerns that our allies may be having about the future of military relations between the U.S. and its allies.
“These mixes are important and bringing folks together in a theater where we don’t have a good regional framework of cooperation is a good thing,” said Costello. “Frankly, you all being here in this room together, not knowing what the future is going to look like is the advantage we have over our adversaries.”
Throughout his speech, Costello continued to assure military partners and allies of the U.S. commitment to the importance of nations being able to work together despite differences.
“The like-minded folks across the Pacific that share a lot of the same interests, have different national interests, but share a lot of the most important interests about maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific in a good world order is important,” said Costello. “In an environment where daily changes are almost certain, our shared mission to collectively ensure the free and open Indo-Pacific is paramount.”
Addressing some of the events happening around the world, Costello provided examples of issues that were concerning all countries in attendance at the summit. Examples such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) no longer using the Sea of Japan for live fire exercises, DPRK’s donation of capabilities to Russia, and the Chinese launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in September 2024, that flew over 4000 kilometers and impacted almost due South of Hawai’i.
Costello also addressed People’s Republic of China’s past actions between Australia and New Zealand which, at the time, caused problems in commercial air traffic throughout the area. Due to these types of issues, He emphasized how important it is to join and integrate knowledge, share lessons learned, and reap the benefits of collaboration. Thus, giving the U.S. and its allies a competitive edge over our adversaries.
“The most comprehensive challenge to our combined national security remains China,” said Costello. “Their military and economic strength is growing at an exponential rate.”
Using Australia as an example, Costello emphasized his belief in lack of safe spaces under perceived enemy threats from China.
“Their ballistic and cruise missile inventory continues to increase and there is no sanctuary anymore,” said Costello. “Australia could have been considered sanctuary a couple of years ago from these missile threats. That’s no longer the case.”
Stressing the importance of allies working together and presenting a united front, Costello reiterated the strength shown when countries, like the ones in attendance, come together.
“This is what they (China) fear, right?” asked Costello rhetorically. “The thing that would give them pause is teams coming together like this. When we brought 12 countries together back in December (2024) to do something like this…that gives them pause.”
Continuing to speak about enemy actions that threaten alliances between the U.S. and its foreign allies, Costello gave examples.
“Since the last MIX, Russia and North Korea have formalized their defense alliance with DPRK sending troops to fight alongside Russians in Ukraine,” said Costello. “Russians making modifications to DPRK ballistic missiles, which have improved their accuracy and precision, posing a greater threat, have been fired in Ukraine.”
Costello then spoke to how actions like this can be mitigated by having like-minded partnerships with our allies and how those partnerships can be utilized to support our responsibilities in preventing and deterring their mutual enemies from continuing these behaviors.
“We have like-minded partners in here today and all other countries are working closely together to establish relationships because of this exact point,” said Costello. “It’s a mutual benefit when we work together in forms like this. They are vital to ensuring shared security and futures in the Pacific.”
Closing his speech on a positive note, Costello reemphasized the importance of continued alliances.
“Without a great team, we cannot project the air power or any joint combat power that’s necessary. Only by doing this with fixed mobile and expeditionary integrated air missile defense operations, enabled by multiple joint and combined ‘engage on remote’ options allowing us to untether interceptors from sensors, we will be successful,” concluded Costello.
This year’s PIC IAMD MIX ‘25 brings with it new challenges along with renewed commitments between allied partners to work together and increase their interoperability to overcome and succeed in their efforts. Maintaining U.S. alliances helps to guarantee that all Indo-Pacific countries involved stand stronger together.
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2025 18:28 |
| Story ID: | 494793 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HAWAII, US |
| Hometown: | CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
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