The U.S. Pacific Command has deployed a guided missile destroyer to New Zealand to support recovery efforts after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit the country, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Jim Garamone writes U.S. Navy Adm. Harry Harris, Pacom commander, told the Defense One Summit that USS Sampson carries two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters.

USS Sampson will also represent the Navy at the New Zealand International Naval Review in Auckland which marks the 75th founding anniversary of New Zealand’s navy, Garamone reported.

The Navy has also sent P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft to New Zealand, the report stated.

The Defense Department has expressed support to a provisional agreement signed by South Korea and Japan to facilitate sharing of military intelligence data between the two countries, the Korea Herald reported Tuesday.

Cmdr. Gary Ross, a spokesman for DoD, told Yonhap News Agency that a potential General Security of Military Information Agreement could help build up cooperation between the two U.S. allies in northeast Asia amid threats posed by North Korea.

The preliminary agreement signed Monday seeks to share and protect sensitive data on North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities, according to a report by Elaine Lies for Reuters.

Japan and South Korea plan to continue discussions as both countries aim to sign the final pact by the end of November, Reuters cited Kyodo news agency.

Both countries were set to sign the bilateral intelligence sharing agreement in 2012 but negotiations failed to advance due to opposition in South Korea to such a pact with the country’s former colonial ruler, the report added.

The U.S. Army seeks to deploy artillery along coastlines to target enemy warships as part of the military branch’s multi-domain battle concept to achieve superiority in future battles.

The goal is for military units to penetrate and destroy enemy fortresses through a combined use of land, air, sea, cyber and space domains under the Army’s windows of superiority effort, the Army said Monday.

“If the Army can provide capability to the maritime domain, that really starts to change the equation there,” Gen. David Perkins, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, told an Association of the U.S. Army breakfast on Wednesday.

The U.S. Pacific Command plans to launch a multi-domain battle exercise in the spring to demonstrate Army assets in maritime missions and the U.S. Europe Command wants to conduct a multi-domain exercise in the region in 2017.

“We’re starting to put together these multi-domain battle exercises in the real domain to replicate some of these capabilities,” Perkins said.

The Army unveiled the branch’s shift to the multi-domain battle concept in October with the goal to outpace potential adversaries.

TRADOC also issued a multi-domain guide to help the Army focus on eight areas such as cross-domain fires, combat vehicles, expeditionary mission command, advanced protection, cyber electromagnetic, future vertical lift, robotics and autonomous systems and soldier team performance.

Several U.S. Marine Corps and Japanese ground self-defense force members held a four-day joint exercise at a USMC air station in Iwakuni, Japan, to test the capacity of both military organizations to work alongside each other to defend U.S. assets in the region.

USMC said Saturday that the forces shared techniques on various scenarios such as standard vehicle searches, response to suspicious packages, perimeter breaches and chemical attacks during the Active Shield exercise.

Jonathan Boron, deputy provost marshal at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, said the exercise required  coordination and bilateral communication to keep the air station safe.

“We tried to imitate and simulate what our adversaries would do in the event we go into a station defense posture,” Boron added.