Panamax 2011 – Naval exercises begin next week


News from Panama / Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

This years Panamax naval exercise takes place next week off of the waters of Panama.  Just a friendly reminder to all, that Panama and Latin America are always ready to rumble if things were to ever get out of hand.  It also sends a strong signal to drug runners that things are taken very seriously down here. While drilling down into the news I found this solicitation from the US Navy and in case you are interested in participating. 

“Description: Six charter vessels are required to support activities from 18 August 2011 through 24 August 2011 operating out of Panama. Motor vessels will be required to serve as “Target Vessels” in operational exercises during the live PANAMAX exercise. “

Read more here: 

This year’s iteration of U.S. Southern Command’s annual Panama Canal exercise, slated for August, will for the first time feature Colombia leading the land component, and will include an added emphasis on cyber operations.

The PANAMAX exercise focuses on the security of the canal and typically involves between 15 to 23 partner nations, said Lt. Col. Edward Rodgers, exercises branch chief for SOUTHCOM’s theater engagement directorate, who will oversee PANAMAX 2011’s planning coordination.

The participating countries are: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay – and Mexico will fully participate for the first time.

The last iteration, which took place Aug. 16 – 27, 2010, included 2,000 civilian and military participants from 18 nations in simulated training scenarios near Panama and the United States. In 2011, Rodgers said, the key difference will be that a partner nation — Colombia — volunteered to lead the exercise’s land component, the first time PANAMAX has had a partner nation lead, he said.

“The focus continues to be the Panama Canal, but the complexity of the exercises has grown,” Rodgers said. Typically, a multinational task force led by a service component leads the exercises with corresponding function components operating underneath that task force, such as land, air and special operations, Rodgers explained.

“For the first time, we had a partner nation come up and volunteer and say, ‘Hey, we would like to be the lead for the land component,’ and that’s going to be Colombia,” Rodgers said. “So it’s pretty exciting that we have a nation that feels they are going to get some value, not only in training but leading a part of the exercise itself.”

In addition to Colombia and PANAMAX co-sponsors, the United States and Panama, participating nations in this year’s exercise include Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru, according to a SOUTHCOM spokesman.

“In addition to that, we’ve added an emphasis on cyber operations,” Rodgers said. “You continue to look throughout the news, and day to day, you can’t go too far without seeing [cyber]. So we’ve added that.”

This year’s exercise will also include a “live event,” where 24 or 25 ships will work north and south of the Panama Canal during the exercise. This part was simulated in 2010, Rodgers said.

“Last year, a lot of blue water ops, the naval vessels, were simulated,” he explained, noting that both the U.S. and partner nations wanted to reduce the amount of expenditures they had to outlay.”

Because Colombia became a recent signator of the U.S. State Department’s Proliferation Security Initiative — which aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction — PANAMAX 2011 will also include two proliferation security initiative events, Rodgers said.

“Colombia is going to do a roundtable with us and Panama to discuss, if we did this for real, how would we react at the government level,” he added.