BARBADOS – The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) and the Barbados Fire Service (BFS) recently met with the United States Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM) personnel to discuss proposals for exercise objectives, scope and supporting scenario topics for the Tradewinds Exercise which is schedule to once again be hosted by Barbados in 2024.

The Tradewinds Exercise is a US SOUTHCOM-sponsored, combined and joint exercise focused on building the capacity, knowledge, and expertise of Partner Nations in the Caribbean to better respond to security and hazard threats.

Barbados’ engagement in the Tradewinds 2024 Exercise (TW24 Ex) will be a Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response (HA/DR) exercise with specific security scenarios to provide context and “road to crisis” for the event effectiveness and satisfaction of objectives; and as a result, there is proposed to be a review of various Emergency Plans and significant training in the lead-up to the event.

The US SOUTHCOM team also met with the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and the Regional Security System (RSS) during their visit to Barbados.

In the photos, Captain Harewood, Director (Ag.) – the Department of Emergency Management chairs the meeting while in attendance were Colonel Grannum – Director of Emergency Policy and Plans, Divisional Officer Edwards – Barbados Fire Service, Colonel Curl and Major Leger – US Army TW24 Planners, and Mr. Garlock – US Embassy Bridgetown.