By Tech. Sgt Aaron Oelrich, U. S. Pacific Command
HONOLULU - The new proliferation security initiative (PSI) Exercise Fortune Guard 2014, hosted by the United States and its Asia-Pacific regional partners came to a close, Aug. 7 in Honolulu.
Approximately 120 civilian and military representatives from Canada, Cambodia, Brunei, Australia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, The Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Spain and the United States participated in the tabletop discussions and the live exercise at sea.
“Fortune Guard 14 was a success, we achieved our objectives, and I think we set an example for future PSI events,” said Maj. Walter Winter, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) Training and Exercise Directorate.
As the first in the annual PSI Asia-Pacifica Exercise Rotation (APER) series, this Fortune Guard focused on building regional weapons of mass destructions (WMD) counter-proliferation capacity, signals partner’s long-term commitment to PSI and establishes consistent deterrence signaling.
During the exercise, participants conducted tabletop discussions where partner nation representatives worked through a scenario to synchronize their efforts in stopping proliferation streams of WMDs through the Asian-Pacific region, and a live exercise at sea with the ROK Navy and Coast Guard, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Navy conducting visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) drills.
“Relationships will be extremely important,” said Maj. Gen. Michael Compton, deputy commander of Pacific Air Force (PACAF) during his closing remarks. “I believe the success of the PSI is due in part to it ‘not’ being a binding treaty, but a public endorsement by like-minded states of the principles of interdiction.”
The overall consensus from participants was that the exercise demonstrated regional cooperation and helped enhance coordination between nations with the common goal of defeating the threat posed by WMD proliferation.
Regional partners expected to host future exercises in the APER series include New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, the Republic of Korea and Japan. The goal of these like-minded states is to build a strong network of cooperation from all parties involved to effectively stop WMDs.