Doug Fitzgerald, scenario manager for U.S. Southern Command, provides instruction during the Tradewinds 2024 Scenario Development Conference in December 2023. MAJ. TIFANI SUMMERS/U.S. ARMY SOUTH
MAJ. TIFANI SUMMERS/U.S. ARMY SOUTH
Military planners from Caribbean communities and partner nations met in December 2023 to script an exercise designed to improve interoperability and help them counter threats together. Planners from Barbados, Canada and the United States were part of the Tradewinds 2024 (TW24) Scenario Development Conference (SDC) in San Antonio, Texas, December 5-7.The three-day conference also included interagency partners from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, and Regional Security System.
More than 50 personnel began laying the foundation for the Barbados-hosted TW24, which will take place in spring. The regionally oriented exercise will focus on countering threats by way of a field training exercise, command post exercise and table-top exercise, and involves security forces from more than 23 partner nations, primarily from the Caribbean Basin, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
The Barbados Defence Force (BDF) selected “Preparing the Region for 2024 and Beyond” as the theme for this year’s exercise, emphasizing the importance of avoiding a singular focus.
“We are preparing regional and local entities for the upcoming cricket World Cup, but also any possibility that may arise beyond that. So, our vision is wide, our scope is also wide,” said Cmdr. Mark Peterson, BDF lead planner and co-host director of TW24.“On the regional front, it brings together a pool of individuals who understand each other’s tactics, techniques and procedures, so we can train together as a region so that we understand each other if called upon to respond within the various member states,” Peterson said. He added that the exercise ensures troops are prepared at the individual, team and strategic levels to prepare for any security threat or humanitarian disaster that may arise in the future.
The exercise, sponsored by U.S. Southern Command, is a combined-joint exercise that requires years of planning, and the SDC is one component of the process. TW24’s Initial Planning Conference (IPC) took place in September 2023 in Barbados. While an IPC focuses on operational and administrative site reconnaissance, the SDC’s objective is to refine the scenarios. In July 2023, more than 1,500 multinational forces conducted TW23 in Guyana for the third time.
Note: This story originally appeared in Dialogo Americas, a publication of U.S. Southern Command.