On July 14 the United States and Armenia opened Rescuer 2006 in Armenia. Rescuer 2006 is an annual exercise sponsored by the U.S. European Command and conducted in the spirit of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. This multinational computer-assisted command post exercise will be co-directed by military officers from the Armenian Ministry of Defense and the Kansas National Guard. This year's exercise will focus on the capability to lead a multinational task force. The Primary objective is to train commanders and staff in the conduct of multinational consequence management, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance operations. Furthermore, the exercise will assist in the development of a common understanding of coalition staff planning procedures. The exercise's 300 participants come from the United States, Armenia, Albania, Austria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Tajikistan and Ukraine.