USARPAC's 1st TIAD Strengthens Cyber Readiness, Partnerships During Marara 26

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Marara 26, a multinational exercise led by the French Armed Forces in French Polynesia, brings together partner nations from across the Pacific to improve interoperability, enhance collective readiness and strengthen regional security cooperation. This year's exercise expanded into the cyber domain with the addition of the Marara Cyber Challenge, providing participants an opportunity to tackle realistic cyber threats while sharing expertise with international partners.

The challenge brought together participants from the United States, France, the Pacific Response Group (PRG), a regional multinational emergency response organization, and other partner organizations to solve cyber defense problems in a collaborative environment designed to test technical skills, communication and teamwork.

"The Marara Cyber Challenge is a capture-the-flag event," said U.S. Army Capt. Noah Demoes, a cyber capabilities developer assigned to the 1st TIAD. "We work together as a joint team to integrate our tactics, techniques and procedures to identify vulnerabilities."

While the challenge focused on cybersecurity, participants said its greatest value was the opportunity to learn from international partners and gain exposure to different approaches to cyber operations.

"It helps us understand different points of view and ways of completing the task at hand," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Lawrence Cook, a cyber operations specialist assigned to the 1st TIAD.

Throughout the event, multinational teams worked together to defend networks, solve technical challenges and expertise. Participants exchanged knowledge and gained a better understanding of how partner nations approach cyber defense.

"Their level of knowledge on cyber operations," said U.S. Army Capt. Jermell Chester, an electromagnetic warfare officer assigned to the 1st TIAD. "They have an immense amount of knowledge, and they've been able to shed light on things for us as well."

French Army Sgt. Erwan, assigned to the Army Forces in French Polynesia, said the cyber component reflects the growing importance of cybersecurity across the region.

"Cyber has become more and more important," Erwan said. "Seeing how nations work on a capture-the-flag challenge can improve each other's knowledge."

Participants also worked through language barriers and differing approaches to cyber operations, challenges they said ultimately strengthened communication and teamwork.

"We learn how other people work, and sometimes we discover new ways of seeing things," Erwan said.

As teams progressed through the challenge, collaboration consistently proved to be the key to success.

"The more that we collaborated, the more efficient we were at achieving the end state," Demoes said. "We each bring a unique background, and usually that background helps at one piece of the puzzle."

Beyond technical training, participants built professional relationships that they said will continue after the exercise concludes.

"We know these people now," Cook said. "We have their contacts, and we can always schedule different times to train. Being that it's cyber, we don't have to come here to do it. We can do it online."

Those relationships support one of the primary objectives of multinational exercises throughout the Indo-Pacific: building trust and strengthening partnerships before real-world challenges emerge.

"I think participation in this exercise is something that I would advocate for moving forward," Demoes said. "Not just for the experience and gaining more technical experience but building that rapport and trust among different nations."

As cyber threats continue to evolve, the Marara Cyber Challenge demonstrated that effective cyber defense depends not only on technical expertise, but also on strong partnerships. Through collaboration and shared learning, Soldiers from the 1st TIAD and their multinational partners strengthened both their cyber readiness and their ability to operate together across the Indo-Pacific.

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