“By building stronger relationships with and developing greater understanding of mutual warfighting capabilities, limitations, challenges to and opportunities for success, we become a more capable international maritime warfighting force,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Steven McDowell, director of Surface Advanced Warfighting School (SAWS). “Our discussions span all domains of maritime warfighting, but also include terminology differences we might have for the same nomenclature or tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP).”
The purpose of this week-long seminar is to offer an opportunity for “Five Eyes” (FVEY) partners to discuss existing and new capabilities, opportunities to expand capacity within the coalition, and to build on lessons learned from recent deployments and exercises. FVEY is common term that originally formed as an intelligence alliance and can be traced to informal secret meetings during World War II.
Royal New Zealand Navy Cmdr. Paula Dacey, Fleet Maritime Logistics Chief of Staff, “It’s fantastic to bring the logistics ideas and objectives to this group. It’s the first time logistics have been included and this ensure we’re well-aligned to continue partnerships for exercises like Rim of the Pacific conducted primarily in Hawaii and Talisman Saber that occurs in Australia, both are executed biennially.”
Protocols for preventing the spread of COVID-19 ruled out face-to-face MWWG conferences for the last two years, but they were able to hold discussions utilizing video teleconferences.
The MWWG included nearly 70 participants who were represented by a head of delegate (HoD) from each nation and participants attended several breakout discussions, engagements on ships in the local area and cultural exchanges with a limited amount of sightseeing in the San Diego area.
A variety of discussion topics included: Maritime Aviation, Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Amphibious Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Anti-Surface Warfare, Information Warfare, Mine Warfare, Operational Analysis, and Logistics. Next year, the delegation will be hosted in New Zealand.