In the News: SWIFT in Jamaica

Southern Partnership Station Begins Training in Jamaica
Story Number: NNS090415-19
Release Date: 4/15/2009 4:02:00 PM


By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Ball, Southern Partnership Station Public Affairs

PORT ANTONIO, Jamaica (NNS) -- High-speed vessel Swift (HSV 2) arrived in Jamaica for the last of two instruction evolutions and the final port visit for Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2008-2009.

Training teams from Navy Expeditionary Training Command, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group began their courses April 14 with Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) members. The courses provide instruction in a variety of fields such as port security, physical security, boarding officer, small boat operations, small boat repair, urban raid tactics, armed sentry, search and rescue planning and junior enlisted leadership.

This last evolution is the 12th port visit for SPS. It follows the second visit to Nicaragua where 55 students were trained in armed sentry, boarding operations, outboard engine repair, martial arts and port and physical security. SPS members also spent a day in Nicaragua rehabilitating a neighborhood basketball court.

Other countries participating in single or multiple SPS training events over the last five months included El Salvador, Panama, Barbados, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

Southern Partnership Station is an annual deployment of various specialty platforms to the U.S. Southern Command Area of Focus in the Caribbean and Latin America. The mission goal is primarily information sharing with navies, coast guards, and civilian services throughout the region. SPS is comprised of Navy training and support teams, Marine Corps training teams, foreign naval officers and civilian contract mariners on a Military Sealift Command platform.

The mission is coordinated through U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet (NAVSO/ 4th Fleet) with partner nations to meet their specific training requests. As the naval component command of SOUTHCOM, NAVSO's mission is to direct U.S. Naval Forces operating in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions and interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment. Various operations include counter-illicit trafficking, theater security cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training.

U.S. 4th Fleet is the numbered fleet assigned to NAVSO, exercising operational control of assigned forces in the SOUTHCOM Area of Focus.