Navigating unchartered territory at REFORPAC 2025 : Climate and distance pose a challenge to military drill
- Admin
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 18
12,000 participants, 400 aircraft deployed to the Indo-Pacific for a two-week exercise
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Building strength amid hurdles in an unfamiliar landscape is a challenge for visiting forces participating in the Exercise Resolute Force Pacific 2025.
Whether it is the tropical humidity, the vastness of the region, or logistical impediments, navigating these stressors forms part of the two-week multilateral combat readiness drill against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific theater.
“The main thing is increased readiness,” said Col. Charles D. Cooley, commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base. “We've got to stay ready all the time, and to be ready, you have to train. This gives us an opportunity to train at a scale that you wouldn't normally get at home stations.”
REFORPAC is part of the department-level exercise series, deploying 400 U.S. and coalition aircraft and more than 12,000 participants at over 50 locations spanning 3,000 miles.
Over 5,000 personnel are stationed on Guam throughout the exercise, which commenced on July 10 and is scheduled to conclude on Aug. 8.
Cooley described REFORPAC as the "largest contingency exercise ever conducted in the theater," aimed at enhancing the U.S. Air Force's "agile mission execution."
The U.S. Pacific Air Forces and participating nations have deployed aircraft to multiple locations in the Indo-Pacific theater since the exercise kicked off.
"Great Britain has bought an A400M. Japan has a C-130H. Korea has a C-130H, New Zealand has a C-130J. We expect, within the next 24 hours or so, Australia to have their C-17, and that will complete our international partners that are here with aircraft," said Col Brandon Shroyer, deputy commander of the 36th Wing.
Canada did not send any aircraft, but it has deployed medical crews to participate in the aeromedical evacuation exercise, he added.
While the ongoing drill is “not related to any specific threat or scenario,” Cooley said, REFORPAC is designed to test the U.S. Air Force’s ability to move into the Indo-Pacific at scale and speed and to refine interoperability with allied nations.
“So obviously we are focused on the region for stability and combat presence and readiness,” he added.
With other training activities taking place in other locations, Guam-based forces assess their own capabilities, synchronizing them across a larger scope and scale, Shroyer said.
As airmen test critical airlift, air refueling and command and control capabilities, Air Force officials noted that the island region’s geographic composition creates layers of logistical challenges—a situation unfamiliar to those coming from the other side of the globe.
“It's a really long distance for us to get here. Then, to be able to sustain that with fuel, food and medical care is also difficult. It is even more stressful on ourselves because we don't all operate out of Andersen (Air Force Base),” said Col. Charles Schuck, commander of the 3rd Wing Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Alaska.
His team operates between AAFB and Tinian’s Northwest Field. “Even though Tinian is not very far from here— like 94 miles— it's still 94 miles of water. So you've got to get it either through an airplane or a really long boat ride, and so it stresses us to make sure that we get fuels, spare parts, people— because people get hurt—or have to go home,” Schuck said.
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“The vastness of the Pacific definitely challenges us. Once you get outside of this cluster of islands, there's not a lot for a really long time before you get to another cluster of islands," Schuck added.
He pointed out that the distance makes hopping more difficult and puts a lot of stress on air mobility assets, including C-17s, C-130s, C-5s and tanker fleet.
“The biggest way to mitigate that is clear delineation of what the requirement is and clear communication," Schuck said. "So the folks that control air mobility assets, they don't know exactly what I need in my fighter unit. So I have to tell all fighters in the unit that I command what exactly I want."
Officials added that surmounting the distance problem also requires a prioritizing strategy.
“A great example is fuel. We have a lot of jets here,” said Col. Matthew Johnston, commander of the 35th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. “I'm prioritizing giving that fuel to somebody who needs it right now.”
"My wing will execute those priorities when it comes to the airlift that's moving the cargo to make sure that the right stuff gets there on the first mission,” Shroyer said.
Johnston also cited other logistical stressors, such as the unpredictability of resource availability on island.
“We came from four different locations to get here, but we weren't necessarily ready for the kind of heat and humidity because we don't have full shelters. So that stresses us,” he said.
“How do we get air conditioners to keep our computers from overheating? We're either going to go buy them ourselves or ask the 36th (Wing), or we may ask a sister unit—the Navy or somebody else— 'Can we borrow some equipment?'"
Adapting to Guam’s climate is yet another issue.
“One of the reasons we do exercises in all different environments is that every environment offers unique and special challenges,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Jerome Limoge, 138th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron director of operations at Colorado Air National Guard.
"Operating in a humid environment with salt air and corrosion in places like Guam presents different challenges than operating in the Arctic or CONUS," Limoge said.
He noted that large-scale exercises, such as REFORPAC, allow military commands to familiarize themselves with environment-related challenges, adapt their techniques and innovate accordingly.
“Operating in the United States, we're kind of used to a very mundane—or not really mundane but kind of standard operating procedures over there,” said Capt. Carter Sweat, a C-130 pilot from Texas.
“But once we get over here, it's a little different operating on islands, with a different type of environment, landing and airfields and things of that nature," he added.
While noting that “different environments do have different effects on the plane,” Hayden Clark, a C-130 maintainer, said the heat equally takes its toll on people.
“It's definitely something to keep in the back of the mind. You sweat a lot out here, so we gotta make sure we keep up on our water supplies and make sure guys are getting the work and rest periods that they need,” Clark said.
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