zoom British ship RFA Mounts Bay (l3008) (top) leads Mexican Navy ship ARM Oaxaca (PO 161) (left), United States Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr (WPC-1107) (right), and Canadian Ship HMCS Shawinigan (MM 704) (bottom) during a formation exercise in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the Bahamas during Tradewinds 18. Photo: Royal Canadian Navy Able Seaman John Iglesias

The US-led ​land and maritime exercise in the Caribbean region concluded on June 21.

The exercise took place from June 4 to 21 and was divided in two main phases. The first one was in St. Kitts & Nevis and the Bahamas while the final key leader seminar phase took place in Miami.

Land operations took place in St. Kitts while maritime operations occurred in and off the coast of the Bahamas.

Tradewinds is a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-directed, U.S. Southern Command-sponsored annual exercise conducted in cooperation with Caribbean Basin partner nations. This exercise dates back to the mid-1980s. This year’s focus was on countering transnational organized crime in the region.

Tradewinds 2018 involved 1,7000 personnel from over 20 countries.

While in Bahamas, navy personnel honed tactics and procedures for tracking, intercepting, and boarding suspect vessels. Individual and group diving procedures and tactics to include supervision, contingency preparation, medical requirements, military dive planning procedures, night dive operations, hull search techniques and bottom search techniques were also rehearsed.