U.S., Mexican and Canadian Soldiers trained shoulder to shoulder during Fuerzas Amigas 2025 in December at Fort Hood, Texas, strengthening partnerships and enhancing disaster response readiness. It was the first time Canadian troops took part in the annual exercise, which is Spanish for “Friendly Forces.”
The event, which rotates its location each year, focuses on multilateral disaster response that emphasizes mass casualty decontamination, hazardous materials operations, and urban search and rescue. Fuerzas Amigas enhances coordination among U.S., Mexican and Canadian disaster response units to strengthen readiness for real-world emergencies.
Drills were conducted during the December 6-15 exercise. Most of the training took place at Fort Hood, but some events occurred in nearby communities. About 300 U.S. troops trained alongside 24 Canadian and 85 Mexican Armed Forces personnel. U.S. Army North, under U.S. Western Hemisphere Command, led the event, ensuring operational control, synchronization and readiness to defend North America.
One drill was based on nuclear fallout after an attack on the United States. Lt. Col. Greg Suguitan, commander of the 22nd Chemical Battalion at Fort Bliss, Texas, said it’s important for North America to be prepared for anything.
“For this particular one, we focus on the nuclear side where we have to respond to the radiation fallout, but we also train for the chemical and biological side so any of our adversaries could possess any of those types of weapons that they may use against us,” Suguitan told KWKT, a Waco, Texas, television station. “It’s important for us to be able to train and respond and mitigate the suffering, save human lives, and protect our property here in the homeland.”
The exercise included actors who portrayed wounded and panic-stricken civilians to make the training realistic. Gwen Burley said she has been acting at the exercises for 16 years and keeps coming back because she loves it.
“It’s fun and it’s a lot of training for the soldiers. And I love training a soldier so that they can get a handle on what’s going on in the real world,” Burley told KWKT.
Fuerzas Amigas 2024 was held in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. In the past, the location rotated between the United States and Mexico. With the addition of Canadian troops to this year’s exercise, it was unclear where the event would be held in 2026.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 13, 2025, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said USNORTHCOM’s military partnerships with Canada and Mexico “are vital to countering competitor influence and presence in the Western Hemisphere while improving intelligence sharing, border security, and domain awareness. … The bilateral and multilateral ties between our militaries will be of critical importance over the next 18 months as the United States, Mexico and Canada prepare to host the FIFA World Cup in the summer of 2026. USNORTHCOM’s capacity to synchronize interagency and international partners will be crucial to ensuring the safety and security of this quadrennial global tournament.”