US Participates in Training Exercise With Ghanaian Military

U.S. Marines and their Ghanaian counterparts participated in a live-fire training exercise at Bundase on November 14, 2003.

This exercise is part of the West African Training Cruise 2004 (WATC).

The purpose of the exercise is to enhance security cooperation between the U.S. and Ghana by providing American and Ghanaian participants the opportunity to conduct various drills in real-world environments.

WATC 04 provides an excellent opportunity to put to trial innovative and novel capabilities and concepts.

During this exercise, the U.S. and Ghanaian military will employ the HSV-2 Swift, use equipment normally pre-staged in Norway, have reserve Marines practice use of this stored fall-in equipment, and use the light weight reverse osmosis water purification unit (ROWPU), an experimental water purification system.

HSV-2 Swift is a wave piercing, aluminum-hulled, commercial catamaran vessel with military enhancements such as a helicopter flight deck with the capability to support night flight operations, a small boat or unmanned vehicle launch and recovery capability, modifiable berthing compartments, enhanced ramps for military vehicles and an enhanced communications suite.

The West African Training Cruise is a regularly scheduled exercise that has been conducted since 1978. WATC consists of a series of bilateral interactions between the United States military and individual African nations

Host nation participants in this year's WATC include Cameroon, Ghana, the Gambia, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and South Africa.

Past WATC activities in Ghana have included medical outreach programs in Sekondi/Takoradi, Shai Hills and Mankoadze as well as many shared military training exercises.