HMCS Summerside Joins Operation CARIBBE

HMCS Summerside recently joined Operation CARIBBE as part of her seven-week deployment in the Caribbean basin in support of Canada’s commitment to improve regional security and cooperation.

“The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has had enormous success on Operation CARIBBE over the past few years, with dozens of Canadian ships and submarines contributing to significant interruptions of narco-trafficking in the region. HMCS Summerside’s deployment marks the fifth of our Kingston-class patrol vessels to take part in Op CARIBBE since the start of 2014,” said Vice Admiral Mark Norman, Commander, RCN.

Following her participation in Operation CARIBBE HMCS Summerside will take part in the United States Southern Command-sponsored training exercise TRADEWINDS 14 – a multinational exercise promoting regional security and cooperation in the Caribbean Basin. The exercise focuses on improving cooperation and security in order to effectively conduct humanitarian crisis and disaster contingencies, combined land and maritime security operations, and operations to counter illicit trafficking in the region.

“As strong and reliable partners in defending the Americas, our ships and crew routinely participate in training exercises with allies and defence partners such as Exercise TRADEWINDS. Such multi-national training provides valuable experience to our sailors, enabling them to remain interoperable with the other navies on a wide ranging types of operations,” commented Rear Admiral John Newton, Commander, Maritime Forces Atlantic.

Exercise TRADEWINDS 14 will include participants from the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies, and their counterparts from 19 partner nations.

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Press Release, June 04, 2014; Image: Canadian Navy