Several U.S. Marine Corps and Japanese ground self-defense force members held a four-day joint exercise at a USMC air station in Iwakuni, Japan, to test the capacity of both military organizations to work alongside each other to defend U.S. assets in the region.USMC said Saturday that the forces shared techniques on various scenarios such as standard vehicle searches, response to suspicious packages, perimeter breaches and chemical attacks during the Active Shield exercise.
Jonathan Boron, deputy provost marshal at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, said the exercise required coordination and bilateral communication to keep the air station safe.
“We tried to imitate and simulate what our adversaries would do in the event we go into a station defense posture,” Boron added.
