Photo By Chief Warrant Officer Melissa Leake | Seaman Mia Mauro and Petty Officer 2nd Class John Leo, both stationed aboard the Coast...... read more read more
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The Coast Guard Cutter Winslow Griesser participated in a joint gunnery exercise Thursday off the coast of Bridgetown, Barbados, during Exercise Tradewinds 2017.
Assets from Canada, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States participated in the joint gunnery exercise, which trains ship crews in the delivery of weapons fire from .50 caliber machine guns and 25MM auto cannons. Each of the participating nations operates one or both of these weapon systems.
“Training together during exercises like this allows us to share our best practices with each other and enhance our interoperability, which is critical so we can effectively and successfully execute future combined operations,” said Lt. Mario Gil, Tradewinds 2017’s cutter track team lead for the Coast Guard.
The HMCS Kingston from Canada was the controlling vessel, and was responsible for organization, maneuvering and target deployment. All participating vessels formed a column at a set course and speed in the designated exercise area, and the HMCS Kingston deployed a remote control target drone off the beam of the first vessel in the column. Once all vessels reported the area clear in the exercise area, by both radar and visual, HMCS Kingston declared the range "green,” and the lead vessel engaged the target drone with its weapons system. Once firing was complete, the lead vessel moved to the rear of the column and the next vessel moved up to repeat the cycle.
Exercise Tradewinds is a three-phased, combined and joint exercise that improves regional security and builds military relations among partner nations that supports the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, a U.S. Department of State regional security partnership.
Phase I and II are designed to conduct joint, interagency capacity building exercises for participating nations, which focus on increasing regional cooperation in complex, multinational security operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.
The Winslow Griesser is the sixteenth Fast Response Cutter to be commissioned in the Coast Guard, and the fourth to be homeported in Puerto Rico.
FRCs are designed to conduct maritime drug interdiction, alien migrant interdiction, search and rescue, national defense, homeland security, living marine resource protection and other Coast Guard missions. This class of patrol boat is capable of deploying independently to execute Coast Guard missions and prevent potential threats from approaching our shores. It offers vastly improved capabilities over the aging 110-foot Island class patrol boats it replaces. The FRC is part of the Coast Guard’s layered approach to maritime security that includes the National Security Cutter and the future Offshore Patrol Cutter.
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2017 14:27 |
| Story ID: | 237075 |
| Location: | BB |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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