The United States and Sri Lanka began a five-day joint humanitarian assistance and disaster response exercise on Monday, bringing American and Sri Lankan military personnel together for training centred on Sri Lanka Air Force Base Katunayake and in Kandy.
Atlas Angel II runs from August 31 to September 4. It involves personnel from the Sri Lanka Air Force, the Montana National Guard and US Pacific Air Forces, with observers from the United Kingdom and Bangladesh also taking part.
Training covers C-130 aircraft maintenance, urban search and rescue, incident command systems, construction engineering, landslide response, and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive hazard management. The Daily Mirror reported the programme is focused on improving communication, coordination and interoperability during real-world disasters.
The Montana National Guard delegation is led by Brigadier General Trace Thomas, Assistant Adjutant General for Air, and Brigadier General Renea Dorvall, Assistant Adjutant General for Army.
What the two commanders said
US Ambassador Eric Meyer framed the exercise as practical rather than ceremonial. “The United States and Sri Lanka have a shared interest in being prepared when disasters strike. Atlas Angel is a strong example of what our partnership looks like in practice — Americans and Sri Lankans training together, sharing expertise, and learning from one another,” he said, according to NewsFirst.
Air Force Commander Air Marshal Bandu Edirisinghe said the exercise showed why disaster cooperation cannot be organised along national lines. “Natural disasters know no borders. They do not recognize economic strength; they affect us all. Through Atlas Angel II, we have redefined what humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations mean, with multiple nations coming together to learn how we can collectively assist people wherever they may be,” he said.
The exercise is among the first public engagements for Meyer, who arrived in Colombo on August 24 after being sworn in earlier this month.
A second run with a changed line-up
Atlas Angel II builds on the State Partnership between the Montana National Guard and Sri Lanka established in 2021 under the US Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program, and on a memorandum of understanding signed in November 2025 covering disaster response, aviation and maritime security. NewsFirst reported that memorandum was signed between the Montana National Guard, US Coast Guard District 13 and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
The first Atlas Angel ran from August 5 to 9, 2024, and differed in composition: it included members of the Maldives National Defence Force, fielded more than 70 US personnel and two C-130 Hercules aircraft, and culminated in a crisis management exercise, according to the US Embassy’s announcement at the time. This year’s exercise drops the Maldivian element and adds British and Bangladeshi observers. Neither NewsFirst nor the Daily Mirror noted the change, and neither reported how many US personnel or aircraft are taking part this time.
NewsFirst linked the exercise to Cyclone Ditwah in December 2025, when two US Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft were deployed to move emergency supplies. That storm also shaped a three-day US-Sri Lanka disaster preparedness workshop held in Galle in June, and the Montana partnership was among the subjects of a Sri Lankan delegation’s visit to the state in April.
Musicians from the US Air Forces Band of the Pacific will also perform with Sri Lankan counterparts during the exercise.
Update: the Montana Guard’s own account
Ada Derana carried a fuller version of the opening on Tuesday, drawn from a statement issued by the Montana National Guard rather than from the US Embassy.
It confirms the ceremony took place on Monday at SLAF Katunayake, attended by Brig. Gen. Trace Thomas — assistant adjutant general-Air and commander of the Montana Air National Guard — and Brig. Gen. Renea Dorvall, assistant adjutant general-Army.
Thomas used the ceremony to look back on five years of the partnership. “Already, the bonds of friendship, partnership and family were well at hand,” he said.
It fills the 2024 gap noted above
The statement supplies detail on the first exercise that neither Monday report carried. In 2024, Montana sent two C-130 aircraft to Sri Lanka for disaster response training alongside the Sri Lanka Air Force, Army and Navy — matching the US Embassy’s contemporaneous account. Thomas said Montana personnel returned from it better trained and impressed by their Sri Lankan counterparts. “Our people came back better trained,” he said. “They noted the bonds of collegiality and friendship forged during this exercise.”
It does not, however, answer how many US personnel or aircraft are taking part in Atlas Angel II, which remains unreported.
A changed name for the sponsoring department
The Montana statement describes the State Partnership Program as running under the Department of War National Guard Bureau, where NewsFirst and the Daily Mirror both referred to the US Department of Defense. LankaNewz has not established when or whether the department was formally renamed; the two descriptions refer to the same programme.
Ada Derana’s account also adds medical response to the published list of training areas, alongside the C-130 maintenance, urban search and rescue, incident command, construction engineering, landslide response and CBRNE elements already reported. Aviation training covers search and rescue and casualty evacuation. It adds that the exercise lets Montana personnel share experience gained responding to wildfires and floods at home.
