New Zealand military personnel are to join a major cyber attack exercise for countries of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-gathering network, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said Friday.

Sixteen NZDF personnel would join about 2,000 personnel from the Five Eyes nations -- New Zealand, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia -- in fending off simulated cyber attacks as part of a training exercise hosted by the U.S. from June 17 to 30.

Major General Tim Gall, Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, said Exercise Cyber Flag 16, being held at a U.S. Department of Defense facility in Suffolk, Virginia, would involve systems that simulated the allied information networks and adversary networks.

The teams would respond to the cyber attacks as a coalition, allowing participants to practice interoperability and defence, Gall said in a statement.

"Although we are all using the same tools to defend our respective networks, it will be great to learn how other countries are using those tools to defend their systems," he said.

Earlier this month, the New Zealand government released a Defence White Paper outlining military spending valued at 20 billion NZ dollars (14.08 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 15 years.

The investment in new capabilities included cyber support capabilities to improve protection of NZDF information networks. Endit

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