Planners from across the region concluded the Tradewinds 2024 (TW24) Scenario Development Conference (SDC) held in San Antonio. Texas, December 5-7.
The three-day planning conference included military planners from Barbados, Canada, and the United States, and interagency partners from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), and Regional Security System (RSS) Department of Defense.
Over 50 personnel began laying the foundation for the Barbados-hosted TW24, which will take place in the spring.
The regionally oriented exercise will focus on countering threats by way of a Field Training Exercise (FTX), Command Post Exercise (CPX), and Table-Top Exercise (TTX), and involves security forces from over 23 partner nations, primarily from the Caribbean Basin, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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 Commander 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,” reiterated Cmdr. Peterson.
He went on to say this 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.
This U.S. Southern Command-sponsored, U.S. Army South-executively planned exercise is a combined-joint exercise that requires years of planning in advance, and the SDC is one component of the planning process.
TW24’s Initial Planning Conference took place in September of 2023 in Barbados. While an IPC is focused on operational and administrative site reconnaissance, the SDC’s objective is to refine the scenarios and road-to-crisis.
In July 2023, over 1,500 multinational forces conducted TW23 in Guyana for the third time.