Co-chaired by Indonesia and the United States, the Experts’ Working Group on military medicine challenged personnel with a series of complex humanitarian assistance and disaster relief scenarios across Banten Province, Indonesia.
The multinational exercise simulated impacts within the scenario of a major natural disaster including an earthquake, volcanic eruption and tsunami, requiring participants to coordinate medical care across multiple locations while operating with degraded infrastructure and limited resources.
Scenarios included chemical contamination, damaged healthcare facilities and compromised water supplies, while offshore, Indonesia’s hospital ship KRI Dr Soeharso and Singapore’s RSS Endeavour provided additional surgical and triage capability.
Major General E. Darrin Cox, United States co-chair of the Experts’ Working Group on military medicine, said Exercise Trident Resolve reinforced the close relationship between medical support, communications and broader humanitarian assistance efforts during disaster response operations.
“Disaster relief, medical care and secure communications are not separate missions. They are a single, unified lifeline to response and recovery. This exercise brings those capabilities together under one roof,” Major General Cox said.
For Australian Army medic Corporal Laura Devine, of 3 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, the exercise highlighted the challenges and value of multinational medical integration.
‘We were working with the equipment that was available on the ground, so it was a matter of coming together and using our collective brains to work with what we had.’
During a tsunami response scenario, teams recovered simulated casualties from the shoreline, treating hypothermia, fractures and other injuries before transporting patients by ambulance to a multinational Role 2 military hospital for further care.
“The language barrier was a major factor. Everyone speaks at least some degree of English, but there were a lot of hand gestures for those who were not as comfortable,” Corporal Devine said.
“We were working with the equipment that was available on the ground, so it was a matter of coming together and using our collective brains to work with what we had.”
The exercise brought together military medical personnel from across the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus framework, creating opportunities to share expertise and strengthen interoperability.
“I ended up in an ambulance with the Japanese and worked really closely with a Singaporean doctor, the Americans, Koreans and Brunei,” Corporal Devine said.
“It was fascinating to see how their medical teams do things, and to see how we are alike and different at the same time.”
Beyond immediate trauma care, participants considered the broader health impacts of disasters, including disease prevention, forensic support, community recovery and the restoration of critical infrastructure. Corporal Devine said the exercise reinforced that effective humanitarian assistance extends well beyond stabilising casualties.
“Our job doesn’t just end with putting a Band-Aid on. It can continue into weeks and months afterwards, helping communities recover through physical health, mental health and living conditions,” Corporal Devine said.
