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Soldiers from the Missouri National Guard’s 179th Cyber Protection Team and Defensive Cyber Operations Element are supporting multinational cyber defense exercises during PANAMAX 2026 in Panama from Aug. 3-13, 2026.
Guard members are sharing experience on offensive and defensive tactics and serving as referees for problem sets tackled by more than 80 cyber protection professionals from 11 partner nations.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nathan Nenninger said the event is designed to build both technical and interpersonal capabilities and that shifting from small-team work to the exercise’s larger scale adds communication challenges. “Why that matters is that the defense of critical infrastructure is a shared regional security interest,” Nenninger said. “Exercises like these build the human readiness behind that specific need, and help our partners come away with a better capability to defend their own networks.”
Along with providing a realistic threat environment for participants, the Missouri team is using the exchange to deepen its understanding of how threat actors operate. “Cyber incident response is our primary mission at the Defensive Cyber Operations Element,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Anna Purdom, 179th Cyber Protection Team readiness NCO. “Any time we have the opportunity to train our skills and see the fruits of our labors, it provides a deeper perspective on our training throughout the year.”
The Panama-hosted, U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise employs scenarios intended to improve interoperability, sharpen coalition and multi-domain operations, strengthen partnerships, and demonstrate the collective ability of participating nations to respond to and deter threats to the region and its critical waterways.
