Swift becoming fixture in SouthCom diplomacy - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Swift becoming fixture in SouthCom diplomacy

A now-familiar gray catamaran pulled into the city of Port Antonio, Jamaica, on Jan. 4, carrying a team of sailors and Marines set to deliver a lesson in high demand among all the seafaring nations in Caribbean — how to fix small boats.

Boat repair, port security and basic law enforcement are part of the core curriculum available from the trainers aboard the high-speed vessel Swift, now three nations deep into a seven-nation tour of Central and South America as the United States’ floating embassy. Dubbed the “southern partnership station,” the Swift is becoming a regular visitor to many ports in the 4th Fleet area of operations, which is exactly what the Navy wants.

“This puts the U.S. military in good standing down here with these countries,” said Cmdr. Chris Barnes, the Swift’s mission commander, who spoke to Navy Times from Jamaica.

“In the three countries where we’ve been so far, we’ve been very, very well received. They appreciate the training, and we’re learning stuff from them, as well.”

A December report in the English-language Panama News began: “The USS Swift goes like a bat out of hell, so it is said.” It also reported that crew members had brought Christmas presents for Panamanian children.

After its departure in November, the Swift made ports of call in Panama and El Salvador, where its 30 military trainers gave classes on repairing fiberglass hulls, small boat motors, port security and other subjects in demand. The Swift’s crew has a total arsenal of about 15 courses, Barnes said, depending on what its host military wants to focus on.

The Swift is an entirely self-contained, military-to-military training center. It has a customizable mission bay; its own complement of small boats that students can practice repairing; and its own onboard classrooms. When the ship pulls into an austere port and the host military doesn’t have its own training center, local sailors or coast guardsmen can come aboard the Swift.

Unlike the Swift’s earlier trips to South America and Africa, the ship doesn’t have a Navy crew or commanding officer. Instead, it has a civilian master and a crew of contract mariners, as a part of the lease agreement between Military Sealift Command and the ship’s owner, shipbuilder InCat. All told, there are about 75 military personnel aboard the ship and about 25 civilian crew members, Barnes said.

Before, the Swift had dual Navy crews, which handed off the ship on its return trips to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va. Although the Navy will eventually have to return the Swift when its lease expires, Navy planners say the ship’s missions are laying the groundwork for the Navy’s own Joint High Speed Vessels, the first of which is scheduled to be delivered to the Army in 2011. The Army and the Navy each plan to acquire five JHSVs.