Great Lakes to host large-scale, international, multi-agency maritime homeland security and defense exercise

CLEVELAND — Approximately 2,500 people from Canadian and U.S. military branches and government agencies are scheduled to take part in the annual maritime homeland defense training exercise, Frontier Sentinel, Sept. 20 — Oct. 5 in the Great Lakes region.

Frontier Sentinel exercises, held annually since 2006, are designed to assess collaborative information exchange, planning and coordinated responses to security and defense threats in the maritime domain of Canada and the U.S.

Frontier Sentinel 2011 is a full-scale exercise held jointly and involving the commanders of U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area, U.S. Fleet Forces/U.S. Navy 2nd Fleet, and Joint Task Force Atlantic. FS11's overall purpose is to conduct a maritime homeland security and defense exercise in the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes region that enables the development of combined information sharing and planning, leading to the generation of a coordinated response to mutual maritime threats. This year's exercise includes participation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“We protect people on the lakes, we protect people from threats delivered from the lakes, and we protect the lakes themselves, but we recognize that no agency can do that alone," said Rear Adm. Michael Parks, 9th Coast Guard District commander. "These types of exercises allow us to use our authorities to build unity of effort, integrated operations and awareness among regional partners to manage risks on the Lakes.”

The scenario for the exercise revolves around an exchange of narcotics for guns by a state-sponsored bus that ships to and from a U.S. fishing trawler. The trawler then conducts a follow-on transfer to a privately-owned U.S. cabin cruiser for transit through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes. The exercise is designed to challenge the participants to develop multiple scenarios involving controlled takedowns of the bus, trawler and cabin cruiser.

Editor's Note: A media opportunity for Frontier Sentinel 2011 is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sept. 29 at the Great Lakes Marine Security Operations Centre at Niagara, Ontario. Media requesting to attend must RSVP no later than 3 p.m. Sept. 27 by calling the 9th Coast Guard District Public Affairs Office at 216-902-6020. Advance notification is required.

More information will be released in an upcoming media advisory.

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