page_title: Cobra Gold
section_title: Recent Cobra Gold exercises
hierarchical_section_title: Cobra Gold / Recent Cobra Gold exercises
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Marines with Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, stand for a group photo after conducting an amphibious beach landing as part of exercise Cobra Gold 2020 at Hat Yao Beach, Sattahip, Kingdom of Thailand, Feb. 28, 2020. Exercise Cobra Gold 20, in its 39th iteration, is designed to advance regional security and ensure effective responses to regional crises by bringing together multinational forces to address shared goals and security commitments in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Hannah Hall)
context_page_description: Cobra Gold is currently the largest Indo-Pacific, multinational military exercise held in the Kingdom of Thailand every year. It is among the largest multinational military exercises in which the United States participates with allied and partner nations.
context_section_description: Participants in Cobra Gold 2013 included the United States, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. Twenty other nations participated in observer status.  For the first time, Burma joined the exercise (as an observer). Exercises held during Cobra Gold 2013 included an amphibious landing involving ground assault fighter jets, attack helicopters, and landing craft; mock military raids involving small boats and helicopters; a practice evacuation involving civilian populations; a combined arms exercise held while live fire occurred overhead and nearby; and training in biological, chemical, jungle, nuclear, and radiological warfare.
  Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of the United States Pacific Command, described Cobra Gold as "the Pacific's signature exercise" in 2014, and noted that it was among the largest multinational military exercise in which U.S. armed forces participate.
  The United States reduced its participation in Cobra Gold 2015 to signal its disapproval of the military coup which occurred in Thailand in 2014. The U.S. sent 3,600 troops to the exercise in 2015, down from 4,300 in 2014. The U.S. also cancelled the exercise in which troops practiced under live fire during an amphibious landing. However, American military forces did participate in a civilian evacuation training exercise, and the operation of U.S. troops in formation in the field in cooperation with the military forces of other nations. Nevertheless, more than 13,000 military personnel from six nations actively participated in Cobra Gold 2015, while other nations participated as observers.
  The United States postponed its participation in a March 2015 meeting with Thailand to begin planning for Cobra Gold 2016. American military officials indicated they might cancel the exercise outright as a protest against continuing military rule in Thailand.
caption: U.S. Marines participate in the amphibious beach landing at Hat Yao Beach, Thailand during Cobra Gold 2020
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