New threats the world over have caused the military to become involved in a range of operations other than war and these dangers are transnational in nature, says Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Lovell of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

Delivering the feature address at the jungle training closing ceremony for a platoon of French soldiers at Camp Ayanganna yesterday, Lovell said the military’s involvement is necessary because of the changing security environment in which non-traditional threats and challenges are emerging.

During the 15-month crime spree that erupted in Guyana following the escape of five men from the Camp Street jail last year, the government deployed members of the GDF to assist in the maintenance of law and order on the lower East Coast Demerara.

The local army has over the years trained a number of other contingents at its Jungle and Amphibious Training School. Thirty-two members of the Ninth Infantry Marine Regiment of the French Army, stationed in French Guiana, yesterday completed a two-week stint.

According to Lovell, Commanding Officer of Training Corps, the three officers and 29 soldiers of the French contingent was the ninth platoon to have been trained here and they were exposed to various jungle skills. The training they have just completed, he said, is the

result of, and a continuation of a process of military cooperation between the armed forces of France and the GDF. In 1992, a platoon from the GDF participated in commando training in Martinique and the following year, the first platoon of French soldiers was trained here.

“Since that time several officers and ranks of both our armies have received training at the Centre for Jungle Training in Regina, French Guiana; the 33rd Infantry Marine Regiment in Martinique; and the Jungle and Amphibious School here in Guyana...The over-arching aim of the training you have just received is to improve your proficiencies in jungle skills so that you could be equipped to fight in the jungle theatre of war. For us in the military, in peacetime, training is the single most important activity we do because we recognise that training is the cornerstone to readiness. There is no other profession whose members would have to pay the ultimate penalty of losing their lives if they employ untrained personnel,” the officer stated.

Lovell said that training builds self-confidence, promotes teamwork and esprit de corps, and increases professionalism that ultimately moulds human and material resources into cohesive and combat-ready units. It is for these reasons, he said, that throughout a person’s military career, he or she will always be engaged in some form of training.

“You will also find that during your military career you will at some time or the other be involved in training with foreign armies. To understand why this is necessary you have to understand what is happening in the world today. In the changing security environment we are witnessing new and non-traditional threats and challenges emerging. Previously, military forces were primarily employed to fight wars, either limited or total. Now the military is employed in a whole new range of activities such as: peace enforcement; peacekeeping; peace building; anti-terrorism; counter drugs; counter arms trafficking; civil support; and disaster relief. These we refer to as military operations other than war.”

According to the officer, these new threats have caused the military to become involved in a range of full- spectrum operations across the spectrum of conflict from war to military operations other than war. Lovell said these emerging threats and challenges are trans-national in nature and therefore not confined to the borders of any one country.

The officer maintained that a threat to any one country has security implications for other countries regionally, hemispherically or globally, and for this reason, he said, there is greater cooperation between and among armed forces as they engage in combined operations.

The French soldiers were scheduled to leave early this morning aboard the same plane that brought home a GDF contingent, which underwent similar training in French Guiana.