U.S. Navy Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 help build a two-room schoolhouse during a Pacific Partnership mission in Pandan, Indonesia, June 13, 2026. (U.S. Navy)
The U.S. Navy’s largest annual humanitarian assistance mission will visit seven Pacific nations over the next five months, bringing together military personnel from nine countries to strengthen disaster response across the region.
This year’s Pacific Partnership includes about 300 personnel from the United States and allied and partner nations, mission commander Capt. Robert Reyes told reporters Wednesday during an online briefing.
The mission comes as countries across the Pacific continue to face frequent natural disasters. Dozens of people died June 8 when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the southern Philippines. A magnitude 6.7 temblor struck Indonesia on Tuesday.
“We conduct the mission under four lines of effort, which is medical, engineering, host-nation outreach and disaster management, with disaster management underpinning all the rest of those lines of efforts,” Reyes said.
“Preparing for natural disasters, to include earthquakes and any other subsequent secondary disasters, such as landslides, is within our skillset,” he added.
Personnel departed San Diego late last month for a mission-planning hub in the Philippines, the Navy announced in a May 27 news release. Participating nations include Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The mission will visit Vietnam this month before continuing to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Malaysia and the Philippines. It will also maintain ongoing efforts in Fiji and Palau, said Reyes, who led Pacific Partnership activities in the Philippines last year.
Established in response to the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the partnership has grown into the Navy’s largest multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness mission.
Last year’s event involved approximately 1,500 personnel operating in eight locations and from the dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor.
This year, the Australian navy’s HMAS Choules, a landing ship dock, will support portions of the mission, although most personnel will travel between locations aboard military and commercial aircraft, Pacific Partnership spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Bertucci said by email Thursday.
One of mission’s primary goals is building relationships before disasters happen, said Canadian air force Col. Alain Lafrenier, the mission’s deputy commander.
“So if we have to respond in an emergency, we’re much better prepared to do it as international partners,” he said.
