RIMPAC 2026 Concludes as Largest Multinational Warfighting and Technology Testbed

Overview

• The five-week Rim of the Pacific exercise, which ended on July 31, brought 30 nations, more than 30,000 personnel, about 30 surface ships, five submarines and nearly 200 aircraft together to run realistic warfighting scenarios.
• Organizers used RIMPAC as a Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) laboratory with roughly 40 experimental projects that tested unmanned surface and air systems, new sensor suites, and integrated multi‑national tasking.
• PACOM and partners ran what they called the Navy’s largest advanced manufacturing demonstration to trial expeditionary, distributed 3D‑printing workflows that produced and delivered mission‑critical parts at sea.
• High‑end warfighting was exercised alongside experiments: forces carried out anti‑submarine, maritime strike, integrated air and missile defense and amphibious operations plus live‑fire sinking exercises to validate combined tactics and kill chains.
• Several high‑profile technology claims were reported but remain unverified in open sources, including a Saildrone fitted to fire an AGM‑179 missile, so follow‑up checks on weaponization and specific test outcomes are needed before drawing firm conclusions.