The Mongolian military and the Alaskan National Guard have been partners since 2003 under the US Department of Defense's State Partnership Program (SPP).

The Defense Department launched the SPP 30 years ago to build and strengthen military-to-military and civilian-to-military relationships between US states and partner countries.

The SPP links a unique component of the Department of Defense, a state's National Guard, with the armed forces or equivalent of a partner country in a cooperative, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship.

The program has been building relations for more than 30 years and now includes 96 partnerships with 106 nations around the globe.

Co-deployment

The relationship between Mongolia and the Alaskan National Guard has been uniquely strong, featuring the longest forward deployed operational partnership of any in the SPP.

From 2003 to 2021, Alaskan Guard members accompanied Mongolian service members on their rotations through Iraq and Afghanistan in support of counterterrorism and democracy building operations.

This forward deployment started soon after the inception of the partnership.

Mongolian forces deploying to the Polish base Camp Charlie in Al Hillah, Iraq, as part of the multinational security forces supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom saw the Illinois National Guard liaisons embedded with Polish forces at the base.

That experience prompted the Mongolian forces to request that their SPP counterparts join them in their mission.

Starting in 2004, Alaskan Guard members served on an annual rotation of shared deployments with Mongolian troops first in Iraq and, in 2009, also in Afghanistan.

Together, the Guard members assisted Mongolian forces in operations, logistics and liaisons with US forces and other coalition units.

Joint Exercises

Mongolia and the Alaskan National Guard have long participated in joint exercises.

Most recently, they collaborated on Exercise Gobi Wolf 2024, a multinational civil and military training exercise that took place in May.

The four-day exercise was part of the Pacific Resilience Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange Program and was organized by the Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency and US Army Pacific.

It included participation from numerous organizations and nations, including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, France, India, Maldives, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The drills centralized interagency coordination and humanitarian assistance with a distinct focus on the risks posed by climate change and natural disaster.

Alaskan forces also participated in the 2022 iteration of Gobi Wolf and Khaan Quest 2022, a two-week long multinational exercise co-sponsored by US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) and hosted by Mongolia.

Khaan Quest 2022 included a brigade-level command post exercise and battalion-level field training exercise that focused on peacekeeping operations and coordination between humanitarian organization and security partners.