Cobra Gold, the United States’ longest-standing military exercise in the Pacific, kicks off this weekend, bringing together more than 10,000 members of the U.S. and six other militaries to focus on interoperability and multinational coordination and training.

Almost 7,000 U.S. service members, most of them Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, will participate in Cobra Gold 2012, which kicks off Jan. 15 and continues through Feb. 17, Marine Corps Maj. Christian Devine, a U.S. Pacific Command spokesman, reported.