The United States and 16 partner nations with a total of about 500 military and civilian personnel began the annual PANAMAX 2014 exercise on Friday.
The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)-sponsored multinational exercise focuses on defending the Panama Canal and protecting safe passage of commercial traffic. The exercise also brings in responses to natural disasters and pandemic outbreaks in various locations.
Photo: Defense Daily
The exercise takes place Aug. 8-14, concluding the day before celebrations in Panama, marking the centennial of the opening of the Panama Canal.
In addition to SOUTHCOM, the United States will send personnel from U.S. Marine Forces South in Miami; U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Air Forces Southern at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.
Additional participants this year will come from Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.
U.S. Army South, at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, acts as the multinational force headquarters. Brazil forces will serve as the land component command, Chile as the special operations component command, Colombia as the maritime component command and U.S. Air Force South as the air component command.
The multinational exercise has grown dramatically since 2003 when the U.S. Army conducted the first exercise together with Panama and Chile.
PANAMAX 2014 mostly uses simulations to command and control multinational sea, air, land, cyber and land forces defending the vital waterway and surrounding areas against threats from violent extremism, natural disasters and pandemic outbreaks.
A B-52 will be used for the first time in this exercise to support maritime detection and monitoring, the first time in three years a live military asset is used during exercise scenarios.
The exercise aims to increase the ability of nations to work together, enable assembled forces to organize as a multination task force and test their responsiveness in combined operations.
The Panama Canal is considered one of the most strategically and economically crucial pieces of infrastructure in the world. Six percent of the world’s trade travels through the Panama Canal every year, accounting for roughly 400 million tons of goods. It is crucial to global commerce, and in particular the region’s economic stability is largely dependent on the safe transport of several million tons of cargo through the canal each year.
U.S. Southern Command is one of the nation’s six geographically-focused unified commands with responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.