U.S. military forces, including the Space Force, burnished their interoperability skills in June as Southern Star 2025, one of Latin America’s largest military exercises, got underway in Chile.
Estrella Austral 2025, as it’s known in Latin America, kicked off May 24 with more than 2,700 participants conducting operations on terrain ranging from mountains to deserts and cities. The event is designed to test the readiness and adaptability of the allied partners and their ability to collaborate on operational and tactical levels. In addition to the United States, the exercise included several nations from Europe and South America.
That test extends to the Space Force, which sent a contingent of Guardians to the event. “Space power is a team sport, empowering our partners as force multipliers, and enhancing interoperability and data sharing,” Space Force Maj. Kevin “A-Ten” Aneshansley, S3 chief of operations for U.S. Southern Command, told Apogee.
The training exercise was organized by Chile’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and sponsored by U.S. Southern Command. Often based around a simulated crisis, this year’s Southern Star included a range of operations, including a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives scenario involving a defense threat reduction exercise, as well as several reconnaissance missions. Included also was a large operation using assets of both the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), along with the evacuation of a simulated embassy by U.S. Marines and AFSOC Special Tactics Teams.
These and other exercises afforded U.S. military commands an opportunity to test their readiness, interoperability skills and capacity to partner with other units and nations, all while being deployed in unfamiliar terrain. The intent, organizers said, was to present a wide-ranging, hands-on training scenario to multiple partners.
“In the field of special forces, it’s much more important to have real-world experience than to read 10 theory books,” retired Army Gen. John Griffiths, head of security and defense studies at Chilean think tank AthenaLAB, told the digital military magazine Diálogo Americas. “Southern Star is a unique opportunity for our Special Forces to train in a territory as unique and diverse as Chile, and for the invited countries to adapt to these scenarios.”
The event, which followed months of logistics planning, wrapped up June 11. Considered the largest special operations exercise of its kind in Latin America, Estrella Austral typically spans a vast domain across multiple landscapes. This year’s event, the 12th iteration, was held on 3,700 kilometers, from as far north as Antofagasta to the southern region of Punta Arenas, according to U.S. Special Operations Command South (SOCSOUTH), based at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida.
The United States and partner nations established a Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command to plan, command and control special operations training at operational and tactical levels, such as developing amphibious navigation techniques, urban combat, maritime and air control, and precision shooting — all under scenarios that replicate real-conflict conditions, USSOCSOUTH and Aneshansley said.
“Part of SOUTHCOM’s space strategy of burden sharing in the [Latin American] region is building partner capacity in space domain awareness,” which, in addition to military partners, included commercial entities as well, Aneshansley said.
Previous exercises have focused on basic operations, but the drills have evolved over the years to
include advanced technologies — including space-based assets — as well as more participants and tactics that fall in line with modern threats, such as drug trafficking, piracy and terrorism, Diálogo Americas reported.
In addition to Chile and the U.S., Estrella Austral 2025 participants included Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Spain. The final planning conference was held in Santiago in April. Military representatives from Chile, the U.S. and invited nations finalized logistics, operational scenarios, simulated rules of engagement and joint coordination frameworks, the aviation media site Aviacionline said.
Over the years, the event has become a leading special operations exercise in the Southern Hemisphere, preparing participants for complex scenarios such as natural disasters, hostage rescues, hybrid threats and transnational organized crime.
Participating SOCSOUTH units were joined by the Chilean Army Special Operations Command, Lautaro Special Operations Brigade, Aviation Brigade and the Intelligence Brigade, in addition to logistics support units. Chilean Air Force and Navy personnel also joined in, along with delegations from invited partner countries.
Coupled with enhanced real-world tactical knowledge, participants benefited from the strengthened partnerships the exercise provided. Griffiths emphasized the interplay of sophisticated technology and conventional skills, telling Diálogo Americas, “Chile values the technological deployment of U.S. forces in open spaces such as the Chilean desert. However, this exercise also highlights the importance of maintaining basic skills, such as navigation by the stars, ensuring a balance between technology and essential training.”
Guillermo Holzmann, a defense analyst and academic at the University of Valparaíso, stressed the importance of the exercise given contemporary threats, including terrorism. “Southern Star is essential for developing tactical capabilities for precision, speed, and deployment in hostile scenarios,” he told Diálogo. “This includes everything from terrorist threats to organized crime, strengthening the sovereignty of participating countries.”