Commander Naval Forces Europe, Commander Naval Forces Africa, Maritime Partnership for Peace (CNE-CNA MPP) unit participate in Cutlass Express 24

Photo above: Left to Right: CAPT Hwang, US Navy, Lieutenant Colonel Dickens Kombo, Kenya Navy, Captain Noel Joana, Madagascar Navy and CDR Matthew Reese, US Navy

Naval Reserve Center (NRC) Denver is 9,135 miles from Mombasa, Kenya, the site of the multi-National exercise CUTLASS EXPRESS. For the lion’s share of the 60 member Commander Naval Forces Europe, Commander Naval Forces Africa, Maritime Partnership for Peace (CNE-CNA MPP) unit, Cutlass Express enables the unit to participate in the greater Africa Command Reserve Element (AFRE). CNE-CNA MPP members guide the year-round training and planning effort from a Concept Develop Exercise (CDE), through an initial, main and a final planning conference before departing the greater Denver metro area for the two-week Cutlass Express 23 (CE 23) exercise.

Cutlass Express was designed to improve regional cooperation among participating nations to increase maritime safety and security in the East African coastal regions. The impetus for this cooperation stems from participating nations Kenya, Mauritius, Comoros, Djibouti, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles and Tanzania signature of the Jeddah Amendment of the Djibouti Code of Conduct, a cooperation agreement that focuses on transnational organized crime in the maritime domain, maritime terrorism, illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and other illegal activities at sea. This year, from March 5th to March 17th, 163 members of the training audience participated in the build up to Field Training Exercise (FTX) which included sharing best practices in Maritime Operations Center (MOC) Operations, Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) Tactics Techniques & Procedures (TTP), and Dive Operations.

Lieutenant Colonel Dickens Kombo, a Kenyan naval officer is the MOC lead during the FTX portion of Cutlass Express. The simulated MOC is on civilian facility just outside Mombasa as the seven other satellite sites are spread from Seychelles to Mauritania to Mozambique who coordinate at 0830 local every day. Normally, management of the common operating picture would be out of the Joint Operating Center (JOC) located in the city of Mombasa. The JOC allows some twenty agencies to seamlessly work together and share information as issues specific to Kenya and the greater region can be assessed with information from bordering countries.

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) is one such joint agency that inspects for unregulated and unsafe products such as sugar that some criminal elements attempt to sneak into the country. This sugar bypasses both quality controls and taxation as these elements will likely conduct their illicit activities at the border regions of Kenya, thus requiring communication and information sharing from neighboring countries.

CDR Lindsay Draper is the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Seychelles Detachment. Seychelles, an archipelagic nation of over 110 islands is uniquely exposed to many of the tenants of Djibouti Code of Conduct. Seychelles is a unique African Partner Nation because they are the host of the Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC).?The RCOC is a neutral entity with liaisons from the other countries who took part in Cutlass Express.?

During her two weeks with various entities of the Seychelles People’s Defense Force (SPDF), CDR Draper promulgated SeaVision training and operational level warfare indoctrination as she met many members of the SPDF. One such member was Cadet Officer Sylvie Tamboo, the first female pilot in the Seychelles Air Force as well as its’ youngest member. “I loved observing the international communication and coordination on the watch floor there. I was impressed by the Centre’s (RCOC) ability to execute various exercise scenarios while juggling language and cultural barriers,” said CDR Draper regarding time in Seychelles.

Mauritius, an Island nation about 700 miles east of Madagascar, is a nation that many may not be familiar with. In the year-long effort to get up to speed on each nation, OSC Baker-Ruiz and others assigned to the Mauritius for CE 23, spent countless hours preparing for the journey, conducting historical research, working with the embassy, and tailoring briefs to ensure the two-week evolution was successful. As part of this ramp up training, all members of CNE-CNA MPP received over 40 hours of in-person and online instruction on SeaVision, a web-based maritime situational awareness tool that incorporates data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), amongst others, in order to provide a real time situational awareness picture for operational level users. “I was completely impressed by the Mauritians and their knowledge of Maritime Domain Awareness; what they didn’t know they were eager to learn!! It was truly amazing to watch them in action,” said OSC Baker-Ruiz, assigned to Mauritius.

CNE-CNA is unique as after the conclusion of CE 23, all members of CNE-CNA MPP will conduct a “hotwash,” before starting preparations for CE 24, as the cycle will continue for the 12th year since its inception in 2011. Cutlass Express has evolved over the years as training and instruction has evolved to include small boat handling, Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) and other viable skills that benefit the partners along the East African coast. During the closing ceremonies as the country representatives were being recognized, CAPT Hwang, the Commanding Officer of CNE-CNA MPP mentioned, “CUTLASS EXPRESS has come a long way in that it was crawl, walk and now run, as we are providing first class training to our partner as we are also learning a great deal from them.”

Before departure, the African partner nations were presented a traditional challenge coin in the shape of the African continent. The frontside of the coin features two opposing Cutlasses signatory of naval lore. The backside of the coin has the state of Colorado seal in the background with the white capped Rocky Mountains in the foreground. For a unit stationed over a third of the way around the Earth in a vastly different physical and cultural environment, it represents unity for maritime peace and prosperity.