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In Brief

Canal Games

For 10 days during mid-August, naval and coast guard forces from eight countries held maritime training activities, called Panamax 2004, to respond to potential terrorist actions threatening the canal.

By Tom Wailgum

November 01, 2004 — CSO — DISASTER PLANNING The Panama Canal stretches over 40 miles and is the winding waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Each year, it allows 240 million tons of cargo to move more easily from continent to continent. And it would be a perfect target for terrorists seeking to disrupt the world's trade routes.

For 10 days during mid-August, naval and coast guard forces from eight countries held maritime training activities, called Panamax 2004, to respond to potential terrorist actions threatening the canal. Military representatives from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Peru and the United States participated in the surveillance and interruption of suspected threats on land, sea and coastline.

The coalition, called Joint Task Force 138, was made up of 1,825 soldiers, 15 ships and 13 aircraft. More than just boarding ships and detaining the terrorists in each scenario, the exercise was about building a communications plan between the countries to determine how they would respond to an actual event. "Each country's navy knows how to do things on its own, but with Panamax we had to figure out how to work together to maximize our command-and-control and communication capabilities," says Rear Adm. Vinson Smith, commander of Task Force 138. "We developed our interoperability in preparing for a situation that we hope would never occur. We now know the sort of multinational response it will take to confront it and prevent it."

During the exercises, Task Force 138 patrolled the canal, monitoring, tracking and identifying all traffic while establishing layers of security to neutralize threats before they could escalate. In total, the force boarded five merchant ships, some of which were loaded with "explosives," while an exercise control group continued to alter the scenarios while they were happening.

"The exercise offered a valuable stage to refine common rules of engagement among the different nations," says Smith. "We also learned that we need to deploy a more robust communications system to support our needs."