State Partnership Program

Our original State Partnership Program assignment was with the Republic of Belarus. As that program came to an end, in 2003, we began our State Partnership Program with the Kingdom of Morocco. The Utah National Guard is proud to stand with partner nations as we further develop the program.

What is the State Partnership Program?

The SPP is a U.S. Department of Defense program that connects a U.S. state or territory’s National Guard to partner country’s military, security forces and governmental organizations. Since 1993, the SPP has created 77 lasting partnerships with countries around the world. These partnerships build personal bonds and enduring trust.

Benefits of a State Partnership Program:

  • Enhances capabilities and interoperability
  • Improves local and regional security
  • Builds enduring personal and institutional relationships through repeated engagements
  • Activities can be military-to-military, military-to-civilian, and civilian-to-civilian
  • Offers unit-level trainings and exercises
  • Provides subject matter expert exchanges
  • Encourages senior leadership visits and participation

Notable military programs with partner countries include:

  • Professional and leadership development
  • Higher headquarters operations and planning
  • Combined arms and field-training exercises
  • Aviation logistics and aerial-port operations
  • Special Operations
  • Construction and road engineering
  • Cyber security and information assurance
  • Communications in challenging environments
  • Humanitarian assistance during disasters
  • De-mining of unexploded ordnance
  • Emergency medicine and casualty care
  • First responder and firefighter training
  • Illicit drug trafficking
  • Combating finance to terrorism
  • Support to border security and immigration
  • Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRNE) operations
  • International youth summer exchange

What does the Utah National Guard bring to the table?

  • Soldiers and Airmen: 7,200 service members in the Utah National Guard
  • Aviation: airlift, aeromedical evacuation, search and extraction, firefighting, combat, disaster response, air refueling, safety
  • Disaster Response and Emergency Management: weapons of mass destruction identification,
  • search and extraction, emergency medicine, casualty care, firefighting, CBRNE operations, decontamination, flood and landslide response
  • Combat Arms: field artillery, special forces, airborne operations, combat engineering
  • Combat Support: intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), logistics, vehicles and equipment maintenance, food services, emergency medicine, cyber security, transportation, public affairs, Army band
  • Peacekeeping Operations: security forces, military police, civil engineering, civilian medical services, air-traffic control, communications security
  • Military Training Center: professional training environment, 24,000 acres of combat and urban training area, housing for approximately 2,000 troops, schoolhouse for noncommissioned officer and officer development