A landing craft from the Thai military's HTMS Sichang tows a Hammerhead USV-T from Sattahip Naval Base to Hat Yao Beach in Rayong, Thailand, Feb. 28, 2026, during a Cobra Gold counter-landing exercise. (Qinetiq)
CAMP RED HORSE, Thailand — A small team of U.S. technicians and contractors is working behind the scenes at this year’s Cobra Gold exercise to bring advanced cyber, drone and communications technology to the multinational drills.
PMTEC — Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability — is supporting the exercise with systems designed to make training more realistic, including maneuverable drone targets, integrated communications tools and simulated cyber and space operations.
The effort is part of a push by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to train forces to operate across multiple domains — land, sea, air, space and cyberspace — in future conflicts.
“Our mission in Cobra Gold is to force our components and our partners into a much more enhanced all-domain environment in order to succeed in the next conflict,” said David Bednarcik, who oversees training ranges and live-fire drills for PMTEC.
Cobra Gold — one of the region’s largest multinational military exercises, which began Feb. 24 and concludes Friday — involves about 8,000 troops from more than two dozen countries. Training includes amphibious landings, humanitarian assistance drills and live-fire exercises.
At Camp Red Horse, a Thai military facility near U-Tapao–Rayong–Pattaya International Airport, PMTEC is running cyber and space warfare simulations and providing technology used in other training events across the exercise.
A team of about 40 civilians and contractors has deployed a cyber range that creates what officials describe as a virtual battlefield for cyberwarfare scenarios.
Additional tools include command-and-control software and the Joint After Action Review system, which compiles data from the exercise and allows commanders to conduct detailed, date-driven debriefs, according to information provided by PMTEC information integrator Tai Prohaska.
For live-fire and simulated combat drills, such as the amphibious landing and counter-landing exercises held at Hat Yao Beach about six miles from Red Horse, PMTEC operates remote-controlled drone targets.
Those include the Hammerhead unmanned surface vessel and the MQM-170 Outlaw aerial target, which allow troops to practice engaging moving threats rather than static ones.
“The significance is we’re doing this forward, we’re doing this to the west of the International Date Line,” Bednarcik told Stars and Stripes by phone Sunday. “We’re making this happen in an austere environment — this isn’t Nellis Air Force Base.”
Founded in 2022, PMTEC has supported several major Indo-Pacific exercises, including Balikatan in the Philippines, Keen Edge and Keen Sword in Japan, and Talisman Sabre in Australia.
The organization first participated in Cobra Gold in 2024.
“We started very small in Cobra Gold ’24 with the procurement of a locally procured maritime vessel to facilitate targeting for U.S. and Thai forces,” Bednarcik said.
Since then, PMTEC has expanded its role in the annual exercise.
“We’ve increased our abilities to enhance Cobra Gold, and we’ll go at it again for Cobra Gold ’27,” he said.
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