The 23rd Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) officially concluded Friday, leaving more than 25,000 military personnel with invaluable experience they can put to good use for future missions.

This year’s version of biennial RIMPAC series, with an opening reception scheduled June 29, involved participants from Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Forty surface ships, six submarines, and over two hundred aircraft operated in and around the Hawaiian Islands. The exercise, dubbed as the world’s largest international maritime exercise, is designed to foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans.

One of the RIMPAC 2012 highlights is the demonstration of a variety of exercise firsts, including the first time non-U.S. officers commanded components of the combined task force during the exercise; and the featured humanitarian assistance/disaster relief event that facilitated training and certification for expeditionary forces to respond to foreign disasters as a crisis response adaptive force package.

“It is a testament to the power of RIMPAC that we can bring a record number of nations together and then conduct complex and purposeful training in challenging scenarios like humanitarian assistance operations,” said Adm. Cecil Haney, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet. “The partnerships, cooperation and camaraderie forged during this exercise are essential to the promotion of peace in the Pacific region and will be invaluable during future contingencies, wherever and whenever they might be.”