U.S. Marines with Charlie Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and Mexican Marines launch a combat rubber raiding craft from the well deck of the Armada de México tank landing ship ARM Usumacinta during rehearsals as part of Aztec Alligator 2023 off the coast of Santa Margarita Island, Mexico, July 9, 2023. CPL. WILLOW MARSHALL/U.S. MARINES THE WATCH STAFF U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance teams recently participated in a two-week military operation with their Mexican counterparts on an island in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja peninsula. The July 6-21, 2023, exercise Aztec Alligator 23 was a combined…
The Watch
Sweden is beefing up its defenses in the Arctic to counter a growing Russian threat, the country’s defense minister said on October 4, 2023. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Sweden is strengthening its Arctic defenses to counter its increasingly aggressive Russian neighbor. As it readies to join NATO, Sweden has drastically increased defense spending and grown closer militarily to Nordic allies such as Denmark, Finland and Norway. “Our natural response [to Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic] has been beefing up our military presence in the northern part of Sweden, reestablishing garrisons and regiment detachments, beefing up our Army Rangers,” said…
The Royal Bahamas Police Force assisted in the search for the missing fishing boat. ROYAL BAHAMAS POLICE FORCE The Watch Staff A multinational force conducted a successful search-and-rescue (SAR) operation recently in the Bahamas, demonstrating the interoperability of the region’s defense and security forces despite facing adverse weather and a wide search area. A fishing boat from Dundas Town in Abaco went missing in mid-October 2023, prompting the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos and the U.S Coast Guard (USCG) to conduct a SAR operation in the surrounding sea, according to…
U.S. Coast Guard Sailors in a small craft in an eastern Pacific operation to combat illegal fishing. U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an operation to help counter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing within the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) Convention area off the coast of Peru in October 2023. A vast expanse of ocean, nearly a fourth of the Earth’s high seas account for the SPRFMO Convention area. Seventeen members from the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania as well as three cooperating noncontracting parties make up the SPRFMO Commission. In 2015,…
Audrey Oxendine, Fort Liberty’s energy and utilities branch chief, shows the base’s floating microgrid to U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen on July 28, 2023. U.S. ARMY MERLE WEIDT The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is adapting to improve critical infrastructure resilience in an increasingly challenging threat landscape that includes a rapidly changing climate and enhanced adversary cyber capabilities. Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), routinely emphasizes the capabilities of strategic competitors to attack U.S. infrastructure, particularly the People’s Republic of China’s growing cyber capabilities. Also, climate…
Fentanyl is being smuggled in great quantities across the southern border of the United States, the U.S. Border Patrol says. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF U.S. Border Patrol agents seized 2,700 tons of fentanyl — enough to kill the entire U.S. population — in figures announced September 30, 2023, a grim outlook fashioned by the People’s Republic of China’s continued supply of materials used to make the dangerous drug. The Border Patrol said that figure represented fentanyl seized between ports of entry on the U.S. southern border. Agents seized more than 22,000 tons of the drug at ports of entry.…
Rising People’s Republic of China (PRC) technological influence in the Caribbean and Latin America worries the U.S., which convened a summit to discuss solutions in Washington, D.C. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. government is trying to combat People’s Republic of China (PRC) propaganda by convening a conference of more than 20 countries to warn of the dangers of targeted disinformation campaigns and the growing presence of Chinese cybertechnology in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Western Hemisphere Cyber Conference, which took place October 3-4, 2023, signals that the U.S. sees Latin America as a crucial battleground between its…
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s ministry pulled Russia out of the Barents Euro-Artic Council in September 2023 after Finland declined to turn over the rotating chair to Russia. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Russia has abruptly withdrawn from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) after Finland declined to hand off the group’s rotating presidency to it. “Under the current conditions, we are forced to announce the withdrawal of the Russian Federation,” the Russian foreign ministry stated as quoted in the Independent Barents Observer newspaper. Earlier, Finnish diplomats declined to confirm to their Russian counterparts that the Nordic country would hand over…
The isolated Svalbard peninsula, about halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, has seen increased presence by the Norwegian military in recent years. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF A visit from a high-ranking Norwegian military commander to a demilitarized Arctic peninsula provides a glimpse of the Nordic country’s changing defensive posture after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lt. Gen. Yngve Odlo, chief of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the operational command center of the Norwegian Armed Forces, arrived in the Svalbard peninsula on the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel KV Svalbard on September 21, 2023. The peninsula has been demilitarized by treaty…
Royal Bahamas Defence Force naval ships, along with an air wing and amphibious brigade, have demonstrated domain awareness to stem illegal trafficking in the Caribbean. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) detained 17 Ecuadorian migrants and two alleged human traffickers in September 2023 as the armed forces of Caribbean nations continue to confront sources of regional instability caused by transnational criminal organizations. Recent political upheaval in Ecuador amid rising crime rates and cartel activity has prompted tens of thousands of Ecuadorians to flee their country. That trend has only intensified in recent months, The New…