Hawaii Guard, Indonesia Conduct Super Garuda Cyber Exercise

SURABAYA, Indonesia - On the outskirts of Surabaya's bustling city at a sprawling naval base, teams of multinational service members collaborated to solve perplexing challenges in cyberspace.

From Aug. 26 to Sept. 5 at the Headquarters Naval Warfighting Training Center, Indonesia, 46 service members from four countries converged for a cyber exercise as part of Super Garuda Shield 2024.

"The objectives of the cyber exercise are to pull together U.S., Indonesia, Singapore, U.K., and some observer countries to develop partnerships, develop technical skills," said Hawaii Air National Guard Col. Glen Hayase, 154th Mission Support Group commander. "They work through some of the processes of cyber incident response, cyber defense, in order to collectively have a more secure communication environment."

Hayase, the cyber facilitator for the CYBEREX, said the exercise was a rare chance for service members from allied and partner nations to collaborate in the same place to solve cyberspace issues.

"You don't always get these chances to have these multinational service members in the same space, working together to get through these really complex cyber challenges, most of which they'll be exposed to in the real world," said Hayase. "So it really is a great opportunity to collaborate, learn from each other, to network, and build those mutually beneficial relationships."

While building relationships was a key part of the exercise, strengthening participants' skills and setting the foundation for future iterations was paramount.

"We're using it as a baseline to build on future years," Hayase said. "Going forward, the plan is to make things more complex, to expand the multinational participation, and further develop technical skills for our partner nations."

Participants were exposed to overarching strategic concepts and methodologies during the academic phase of the CYBEREX. Fine-tuning defensive cyber technical skills became the focus in subsequent phases. In the final phase, participants used their skills in a capstone scenario-driven exercise.

One group of cyber professionals acted as the red team, providing penetration testing and feedback. Blue team members defended their respective networks.

This iteration of the CYBEREX was the first time a cyber exercise was part of the annual Super Garuda Shield. Garuda Shield, begun in 2009, focuses on partnership and a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Gen. Agus Subiyanto, commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (Panglima), asked that a cyber-focused event be included in Super Garuda Shield.

"The Panglima is the driving force for our CYBEREX," Hayase said. "Without his direction and endorsement, as well as support from Indonesian Armed Forces senior leaders, this event might have never come to reality."

The Indonesian Armed Forces and the Hawaii National Guard planned the CYBEREX. The two organizations have been partners via the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program since 2006.

"So much of the relationship building happens outside the cyber scenario. It's during coffee breaks, during lunch before and after, hopefully, we make lifelong friends and partners," Hayase said. "Hopefully, we'll never need to call on each other, but it's good to know that we have those friends that we could call upon if we really need to."

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