SOUTHCOM Theater Engagement Strategy

A theater engagement strategy translates essentially to the fact that there is no substitute for “being there.” It is a plan to demonstrate the benefits partnership and cooperation can provide.

• Enabling Partner Capabilities/Capacity – As the most combat-experienced professional military forces in the world, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines enjoy the respect of their peers. Building partner-nation capacity and enhancing interoperability is a core mission for SOUTHCOM.  Much of this mission is enabled through the series of training exercises conducted by SOUTHCOM every year, but the command also conducts military-to-military exchanges and seminars throughout its area of operations with partner-nation militaries to further the professional development of foreign military officers and senior enlisted personnel. The International Military Education and Training program helps send more than 2,000 students from the region annually to attend U.S. military training programs across DoD, including the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), the Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the Inter-American Defense College, and the Inter-American Air Forces Academy. Crucially, these training programs stress respect for human rights and the role of a professional military in the context of a democratic society.
  

• Joint Training/Exercises – Training exercises provide unique opportunities to “put all the pieces together” – to drive the vehicles and shoot the weapons, use the communications gear, employ the sensors, and direct all the moving parts to execute a complex plan. Multinational exercises are even more valuable, because they are an opportunity to see how other militaries perform similar missions. SOUTHCOM sponsors the UNITAS series of annual naval exercises, which, since 1960, have brought together the naval forces of Latin America and the Caribbean. Another series of exercises is PANAMAX, designed to improve the interoperability of the military and civil forces of concerned nations to assist Panama to protect and guarantee safe passage through the canal and ensure its neutrality. The Tradewinds exercises address transnational security threats in the Caribbean. The Fuerzas Comando exercises bring together SOF units from throughout the hemisphere in a demanding counterterrorism and special operations skills competition. Other exercises focus on peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and medical readiness. The Beyond the Horizon (BTH) and New Horizons (NH) programs provide training for service members while performing services for communities throughout the region. U.S. forces, along with partner-nation personnel, build schools, water wells, clinics, community centers, and other projects as well as carry out medical readiness exercises.

• Joint Planning/Information Sharing – The creation of operational plans for various contingencies is hardly a new idea for command organizations like SOUTHCOM. However, given the relatively peaceful nature of Latin America these days, SOUTHCOM and its partner nations have been making plans of a much more constructive and positive nature in recent years. Since natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.) are prevalent in the region, SOUTHCOM makes contingency plans with nations in the region for first-response scenarios. In addition, operations and exercises such as Operation Martillo and Fuerzas Comando demand regular coordination. As experience has shown, good peacetime relations often require more and better communications than those between wartime allies.
  

• Building Relationships – Friendship between nations is ultimately based on friendship between people, and U.S. military personnel are excellent ambassadors because their compassion, professionalism, and basic decency speak a universal language. At a deeper level, America remains a melting pot; for example, it comprises the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. For the militaries of its partner nations, the United States’ personnel are role models. By force of personal example, they can positively influence those who will shape the future of their societies. This is particularly important in the area of civil-military relations, rule of law, and respect for human rights, where the United States’ traditions may be very different from the historical experience of its partners.SOUTHCOM Success Stories

 

SOUTHCOM Success Stories

The quarter-century since the end of the Cold War has given SOUTHCOM many chances to exercise its unique approach to Latin America. A few of the command’s success stories include:

• Operation Unified Response (Haiti) – On the morning of Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Centered near the capital of Port-au-Prince, the quake destroyed virtually all of Haiti’s transportation, communications, and public utilities infrastructure. Realizing that the first task was to reopen Toussaint Louverture International Airport, SOUTHCOM dispatched the 1st Special Operations Wing from U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command to attend to that task. In the days and weeks that followed, what became known as Operation Unified Response grew to a force of 23 warships, 57 helicopters, 264 fixed-wing aircraft, and more than 22,000 U.S. military personnel. By Feb. 18, 2010, the Air Force alone had delivered nearly 6,000 personnel, 19 million pounds of cargo and supplies, and evacuated 223 critical Haitian national patients for stateside care. March 24, 2010, marked the end of the mission.
  
• Operation Martillo – One of SOUTHCOM’s main CTOC efforts, Operation Martillo is an “end-to-end” intelligence and maritime interdiction effort run by SOUTHCOM, along with U.S. and partner-nation law enforcement agencies. Martillo engagements normally begin with an intelligence/operations plan created by JIATF-South, a two-star U.S. Coast Guard command based in Key West, Fla. From there, available resources (warships, planes, law enforcement personnel, etc.) are assembled, and interdictions are executed. Martillo seizures are usually quite large, as shown by a recent confiscation by USS Gary (FFG 51) of more than 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of cocaine on Feb. 23, 2013. From the beginning of the operation in 2012 through the early part of 2013, more than 242 metric tons of cocaine were intercepted, along with almost 42,000 pounds of marijuana, more than $10 million in cash, and a few hundred drug runners.
  
  
• Fuerzas Comando – It goes without saying that SOF warriors are among the most competitive of military personnel. So the idea of pitting the skills of SOF operators from different nations against each other in a regional competition seemed only natural. What that notion has become over the past decade is Fuerzas Comando, arguably the best SOF skills competition in the world today. In 2012, 21 countries from around the Americas sent military and police SOF assault and sniper teams to compete, with Colombia coming out on top.

These three activities are just a sampling of the dozens of daily efforts being executed by SOUTHCOM in Latin America and the Caribbean today.

 

Conclusion

If America is to continue to fulfill its promise, it will need to do so in partnership with nations having similar intentions and objectives. Nowhere in the world does such a collection of countries exist with qualities so suited to partnership with the United States as Latin America. Already, the United States has built strong regional partnerships with nations like Colombia and Panama, and their neighbors are obvious candidates for stronger regional ties.

Celebrating its 50-year anniversary this year, SOUTHCOM is one of America’s strongest and most effective tools in building partnership with the United States and an economic zone through almost 180 degrees of latitude. This partnership is a vital one, not only for security but also for economic reasons – nearly 40 percent of American trade moves north and south on the continent, and the United States imports more oil from Latin America and the Caribbean than from the Middle East.

Celebrating its 50-year anniversary this year, SOUTHCOM is one of America’s strongest and most effective tools in building partnership with the United States and an economic zone through almost 180 degrees of latitude.

“We are uniquely poised as an integral partner with the nations of our region,” Kelly said. “The United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean remain connected by geography, culture, and family – all of which are so valuable to our shared success. We are committed to maintaining – and constantly improving – these vital relationships.”

This article first appeared in A Half-Century of Service: SOUTHCOM.