For the first time in almost 50 years, a Latin American country will lead RIMPAC's Naval War rehearsal

More than 25,000 people, 200 aircraft, and 27 countries will participate this year in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world's largest naval war exercise, which has navies from the five continents that are trained to ensure the safety of the oceans and maintain the cooperative relations between nations.

Leer en español: Cuatro países latinoamericanos participarán en el ejercicio de guerra marítimo más grande del mundo

The RIMPAC is held every two years during the months of June and July for more than four decades. Its initial objective was to stop the Soviet expansion IGNORE INTO the Pacific, and only the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom participated in the naval exercises.

However, over the years and without the threat of the Soviet Union, the RIMPAC became a means to promote the stability of the participating countries and train them in the protection of the territories.

Latin American participation

For more than a decade, four Latin American countries have participated in the RIMPAC that directs the prows towards Hawaii and the coasts of southern California. Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru are the only nations in the region that have their ships and hundreds of naval experts to carry out the maritime war exercise.

For their part, Ecuador and Brazil have participated as observers in previous editions, without contributing any ship, but preparing for a possible full participation in the future.

RIMPAC has always been organized by the U.S. Navy of the Pacific Fleet, but this year, for the first time in the history of the world naval encounter, a Latin American navy will direct the maritime component of the Combined Force of RIMPAC: Chile.

Chile was the first country in Latin America to be linked to this exercise of war in 1996, and since then the evolution and performance of its personnel has been evident, making it worthy of leading the 2018 edition of RIMPAC.

Against what threats are prepared?

According to expert explanations, the exercises carried out during the RIMPAC not only serve to assign functions to the different participants to the penetration of possible rivals, it also coordinates and trains the parties to jointly fight trafficking and piracy.

James R. Holmes, a maritime strategy expert at the U.S. Naval War College, told BBC that this world's largest naval warfare exercise "supports regional campaigns like those in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But there is also a large number of police tasks in peacetime, such as combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden or the Gulf of Guinea, detaining arms or human traffickers and combating the proliferation of unconventional weapons."

China stays out

This year, the United States canceled China's invitation to participate in the war exercise. According to experts in international relations, the decision was made due to the military operations carried out by the government of Beijing in a zone of the Pacific whose sovereignty is disputed. This act caused that the armed forces of China and the U.S. to performed military deployments and operations that have broken diplomatic relations between both nations.

Latin American Post | Krishna Jaramillo

Translated from "Estos son los países latinoamericanos que participarán en el ejercicio de guerra naval más grande"