Joint exercise synchronizes cooperation between U.S., Mexican and Canadian water operations

Ships and teams gathered off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico last month for a weeklong exercise under the North American Maritime Security Initiative (NAMSI), which brought together the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, Mexican Navy (SEMAR) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).

“This exercise provides U.S., Mexico and Canada the opportunity to develop and refine our training and operations as partner nations,” Rear Adm. Andrew Sugimoto, commander of U.S. Coast Guard District 11, said. “We take pride in our ability to strengthen partnerships and interoperability among the nations’ sea services.”

This year’s Pacific Exercise focused on full-scale maritime law enforcement, training and strengthening crews’ knowledge in handling a variety of situations. For it, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Active and the U.S. Navy Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Savannah joined SEMAR ship ARM Hidalgo and RCN ship HMCS Edmonton. Aviation assets from the U.S. Coast Guard and SEMAR also participated, along with the respect command centers in U.S. Coast Guard District 11, U.S. Navy 3rd fleet, SEMAR Tenth Naval Region and SEMAR headquarters.

NAMSI began in 2008, as a trilateral forum for U.S., Mexican and Canadian maritime commands. Together, they use this forum to develop and refine their operations, improve interoperability and synchronize training. All of this in undertaken with the goal of creating cohesive regional maritime security around North America.