Yeah, thank you for those questions. And from the standpoint of support, we are dedicated to supporting our ally in this case. And as you suggest, we're together a great deal and exercise. We're hosted in Japan, and our forces are very interoperable and similar in capability to their Japanese counterparts. So this is a natural fit for the United States military. And we're hopeful that the support that we're providing is helping the Japanese very much in this effort.
From the standpoint of the exercises that we conduct, as you suggest, exercising disaster response and humanitarian assistance is part of our regular exercise series. And then, together, we go beyond that to become truly two interoperable militaries. And we -- and we exercise in a very complex manner in combined arms with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. So these are two very capable militaries and familiar militaries with one another, and interoperable militaries in that we have very similar systems and processes and procedures between us. So, again, a good fit.
What's different about this particular disaster is that we -- it's a confluence of three major disasters in one: the earthquake, which is widespread; the tsunami, which, though along the coast, has created a very, very challenging and unique area in which to conduct search-and-rescue search and support; all complicated by the consequence of the reactor accidents that have occurred and the complexity that that's placed in terms of mobility and just its effect on the overall dynamics of the -- of the operations in which we're embarked.
So what's different about this is that it has raised the level of complexity from most exercises that we would conduct. But from the standpoint of the unit-level efforts that we're making, the exercises have served us very well. And at the unit level, whether it's with our Japanese counterparts, or in support of our Japanese counterparts and being conducted unilaterally, the U.S. forces and the Japanese forces that we're working with are performing magnificently and courageously in this very complex environment.
This cooperation would certainly be useful in wartime. But lives will be saved in a peacetime disaster because we can work together from day one of a crisis such as this triple disaster of massive earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor crisis. As allies, we'd naturally want to help each other in times of crisis. Because we train together, we are capable of helping each other in times of crisis.
