Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

As the Tradewinds mil­i­tary ex­er­cis­es end to­day, two se­cu­ri­ty spe­cial­ists agree that the train­ing and ex­pe­ri­ences gained from the in­ter­ac­tions should be con­tin­ued and utilised by lo­cal mil­i­tary per­son­nel to strength­en their per­for­mance in times of cri­sis.

The Tradewinds ex­er­cise is a se­ries of mil­i­tary train­ing op­er­a­tions spon­sored by the US South Com­mand (US South Com) which seeks to pro­mote greater col­lab­o­ra­tion, while en­hanc­ing the op­er­a­tional ca­pac­i­ties of re­gion­al mil­i­taries.

This year’s ex­er­cise last­ed from April 26 to May 8 and is the 40th edi­tion of the ex­er­cis­es.

In ad­di­tion to troops from the US and the Caribbean, mil­i­tary per­son­nel from Colom­bia, Mex­i­co, the UK and France al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year’s ex­er­cis­es.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Garvin Heer­ah said such ini­tia­tives were wel­comed and urged re­gion­al stake­hold­ers to make the most of the ex­pe­ri­ences gained.

Heer­ah, who served in the T&T Coast Guard, added that giv­en chang­ing trends in arms and nar­co-traf­fick­ing, transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime and emerg­ing threats to cy­ber se­cu­ri­ty, there was need to strength­en the readi­ness of re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies.

“Through com­bined drills and joint com­mand ex­er­cis­es, agen­cies en­hance their sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness and im­prove op­er­a­tional co-or­di­na­tion.

“Equal­ly im­por­tant, Tradewinds nur­tures geopo­lit­i­cal align­ment be­tween re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al ac­tors, en­sur­ing that re­spons­es to crises—be they nat­ur­al dis­as­ters or se­cu­ri­ty threats—are swift, co­he­sive, and in­formed by best prac­tices.”

He, how­ev­er, urged com­man­ders and lead­ers to en­sure that the train­ing and pre­pared­ness con­tin­ues even af­ter the ex­er­cise ends to en­sure op­er­a­tional suc­cess.

Heer­ah added that as cross-bor­der crim­i­nal threats have evolved to ad­just to chang­ing times, so too should se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies to keep pace and pre­vent dan­ger.

“This in­cludes adopt­ing mod­ern tac­tics, up­dat­ing doc­trine, in­te­grat­ing dig­i­tal com­mand plat­forms, and build­ing in­sti­tu­tion­al mem­o­ry across forces.

“By em­bed­ding these ad­vance­ments in­to our na­tion­al and re­gion­al the­atres of op­er­a­tion, we cre­ate a more for­mi­da­ble front against transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime and in­sta­bil­i­ty.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment re­tired Coast Guard Lt Col Nor­man Din­di­al agreed that lo­cal troops should not low­er their guard and con­tin­ue to use the lessons learned to sharp­en their skills in the event of any in­ci­dents which may arise.

Din­di­al, who as­sist­ed in co-or­di­nat­ing past Tradewinds ex­er­cis­es in Ja­maica and T&T while he worked in the T&T Coast Guard’s ad­min­is­tra­tion, said lo­cal mil­i­tary com­man­ders were giv­en the tools to con­tin­ue ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing even af­ter such large-scale ex­er­cis­es.

“Tradewinds is that ex­er­cise that al­lowed those gaps to be filled, so we’re not just train­ing the in­di­vid­u­als in the par­tic­u­lar armed forces in the re­gion, there are oth­er things that the ODPM and re­gion­al co-or­di­na­tors will have to do, but we will ac­tu­al­ly be train­ing the train­ers them­selves so you will have the ca­pac­i­ty to train your own peo­ple af­ter they leave.

“The US brought the funds and the ca­pac­i­ty to help small­er na­tions.”

Ear­li­er this year, it was re­port­ed that US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s de­ci­sion to re­duce for­eign aid may have di­rect­ly af­fect­ed the de­fence force as train­ing for dis­as­ter-re­lief was can­celled.

Asked if he an­tic­i­pat­ed the cur­rent US ad­min­is­tra­tion’s for­eign poli­cies to ad­verse­ly af­fect re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty part­ner­ships, Din­di­al said while some pro­grammes may be af­fect­ed, the Caribbean was a key area for re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty and be­lieved the US sup­port of lo­cal de­fence would still be avail­able to some de­gree.

“There’s a lot of talk that they may re­move some of their in­flu­ence but re­al­ly and tru­ly they may want to strength­en the US in­flu­ence with Trinidad and To­ba­go at this point in time.

“In Trinidad and To­ba­go it’s par­tic­u­lar­ly im­por­tant for them to do that, be­cause it’s in close prox­im­i­ty to Venezuela.”