Super Garuda Shield 2026 Multinational Exercise Kicks Off With US, 13 Partner Nations

Indonesia and the United States opened Super Garuda Shield 2026, an annual multinational military exercise, running from late August through September 11, 2026 at sites including Bandung, Baturaja and Lampung. More than 4,700 personnel from Indonesia, the US and 13 partner nations — including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom — took part in command-and-control drills, airborne infiltration, Stinger surface-to-air missile firing, jungle operations, naval maneuvers and cyber defense training. Organizers added humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief training to the program in direct response to Indonesia's recent crises, including the magnitude-7.7 East Nusa Tenggara earthquake that killed more than 100 people in August and wildfires that burned roughly 95,000 hectares in July. The exercise, first launched bilaterally in 2006 and expanded to a multinational format in 2022, underscores the deepening US-Indonesia defense partnership formalized under the April 2026 Major Defense Cooperation Partnership.