Exercise Event Horizon Will Sharpen Disaster and Emergency Response Across Region

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Exercise Event Horizon will showcase a suite of activities aimed at sharpening disaster and emergency response across the region.

Exercise Event Horizon 2025, which began on January 12, takes its name from a term in the army where plans are put in place for things that are unseen “beyond the horizon”.

“It is verbiage that we use in domain awareness and what event horizon means is our ability to look beyond,” Brigade Commander, JDF’s Maritime Air and Cyber Command (MACC) and Officer Scheduling Exercise (OSE), Brigadier Elon Clarke, told JIS News.

“The horizon is usually the limit of your vision. When we look at it in the operational context, it is something that we pay keen attention to so that we are not surprised,” he noted further.

The two-week calendar of activities will see major operations being undertaken to involve the participation of 13 countries.

Executive Officer, MACC and Officer Conducting Exercise (OCE), Commander Alvin Gayle, told JIS News that the activities will fall under four main categories or tracks – Maritime Security, Cybersecurity, Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Missions.

The event will start with Humanitarian Assistance, as Jamaica is the subregional focal point for the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency Regional Response Mechanism.

“The focus will be on exercising the Jamaican Disaster Response Team and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Response Team. Activities will include the establishment of a disaster zone in the Cayman Islands to provide disaster relief training from January 12 to 19. The initiative aims to foster inter-agency collaboration and improve disaster readiness across the region,” Commander Gayle noted.

One of the key events under Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue will be the simulation of a national mass casualty response from January 23 to 24.

The exercise will involve a scenario of a large aircraft crash, mobilising Jamaica’s national apparatus and engaging international partners.

“In conjunction with search and rescue activities, Jamaica will exercise its National Oil Spill Response Plan during the week of January 23. This will involve coordinated efforts between the JDF, Jamaica Fire Brigade, and local port facilities to manage and mitigate oil spill scenarios in the Kingston Harbour,” Commander Gayle said.

On the cyber side, he said that “teams will [be engaged in] fighting is a series of significant cyberattacks on significant infrastructure in our ports”.

Offensive and defensive cyber teams will face off in a high-stakes exercise designed to test and improve national and regional cybersecurity measures.

Participating teams include the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Cyber Team, Jamaica’s Cyber Incident Response Team, and the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA).

Maritime security operations will extend beyond Jamaica’s borders, with joint activities involving Jamaica, Colombia, Haiti, Cayman Islands, and the Dominican Republic. These operations will include joint patrols and collaborative exercises to ensure maritime safety and security in shared waters.

“These activities will take place in the joint regime area, which is jointly managed by ourselves (Jamaica) and the Colombians,” Commander Gayle noted.