Indonesia’s signature military exercise, Super Garuda Shield, began in late August 2024 at locations across the republic to improve multilateral operations and enhance relationships among armed forces and citizens through command-and-control briefings, field training, and community improvement projects.
Planners met repeatedly before the two-week exercise to fine-tune sessions on tactics, techniques and procedures, information sharing, and interoperability. Accompanying the annual event’s drills and academic exchanges are informal engagements to encourage interactions among military personnel from different nations and with local communities.
The 2024 exercise stresses all-domain operations with drills that assess and improve joint capabilities on land and sea, in the air and in cyberspace, including:
- Simulated battle scenarios to improve decision-making under pressure.
- Tactical training and maneuvers to enhance squad-level performance in coordination with larger unit objectives.
- Assessing cybersecurity capabilities with recommended techniques to identify, defend against and hunt cyber threats to military operations.
- Field training in challenging terrains to bolster operational readiness. Exercises include jungle maneuvers to test survival, navigation and tactical movement skills; amphibious sea-to-shore landing operations coordinated between naval and land forces; daytime and nighttime parachute training; simulated assaults to capture key locations held by adversaries; and live-fire exercises to improve joint firepower operations.
Goodwill projects include renovating an elementary school in East Java with new restrooms, roofs and lighting. Partner forces will distribute food and medication and provide medical and dental services and health care information to civilians. Exercise participants also will review protocols for responding to natural disasters and medical emergencies.
Super Garuda Shield involves more than 20 nations from the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere, including about 1,000 Indonesian troops and 1,800 U.S. personnel, as well as troops from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Eleven nations sent observers.
Garuda Shield began in 2007 as a bilateral exercise between the Indonesian and U.S. militaries. It evolved into a multinational event in 2022, becoming one of the region’s largest exercises. The name Super Garuda Shield reflects its multiple events and multinational character.
Since the 2023 iteration, Indonesia and the U.S. have elevated their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership. The pact addresses economic development, a clean energy transition, deepening people-to-people ties, and a commitment to promoting peace and stability, as well as enhancing the security partnership with a defense cooperation arrangement.
Super Garuda Shield supports Indonesia’s objectives to protect the nation’s sovereignty, preserve its territorial integrity and maintain security. A multinational approach is critical, Indonesian National Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Nugraha Gumilar told the Indonesia Business Post website in July 2024. “We cannot build confidence among Southeast Asian nations in maintaining regional security all alone,” he said. “Countries in the region need to have common understanding.”
