South Africa (SA)/United States (US) military co-operation by way of Exercise Shared Accord continues, with the Free State province earmarked for the fifth exercise in an ongoing series in August.
As with previous Shared Accords, held in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, the emphasis is humanitarian operations with this year’s focus on veterinary services.
With six months to go before Shared Accord 2025 starts, the main planning conference was held at 44 Parachute Regiment at the Tempe military base outside the Bloemfontein provincial capital last week. The unit hosted exercise planners from the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), the US military’s Southern Europe Task Force-Africa, the New York National Guard, the US Air Force (USAF) and the US Embassy in South Africa under co-chairs Brigadier General Rachel Rahlao, Director Force Preparation and Training at the Joint Operations Division, and New York National Guard Colonel Jeffrey Csoka.
Exercise Shared Accord 2025 will have veterinary care and services as its prime objective. Aims include ensuring improved animal health services in selected areas, providing critical veterinary services, enhancing training, and building capacity in local communities. These will be met by way of veterinary outreach; knowledge and training exchange, as well as biosecurity and disease prevention, to be executed by “enhancing preparedness for animal disease outbreaks and preventing zoonotic diseases that could impact both animal and human populations,” according to SANDF Joint Operations.
The conference identified multiple strategic objectives for Shared Accord 2025. They are to improve interoperability between combined mission command nodes and enhance joint planning and execution of activities; strengthen joint inter-departmental, inter-agency and multinational co-operation; conduct mass casualty scene management for animal related health crises, including chemical and biological preventative measures; enhance civil military co-operation (CIMIC); and implement educational programmes to build capacity and develop skills in the veterinary field.
Planning has involved the Free State Department of Agriculture whose Deputy Director Animal Disease and Control, identified as Dr J Barnard, was in attendance at the planning session. The department has identified three areas in the Free State that would greatly benefit from the biosecurity campaign, due to their limited access to veterinary services. The campaign will prioritise animal diseases such as rabies, distemper, parvovirus, transmissible venereal tumour, canine babesiosis, sarcoptic and demodectic mange, emphasising how vaccinating cats and dogs helps prevent disease spill-over into the broader animal and human populations.
It’s not only domestic animals and those who own them who will benefit from the exercise – Joint Operations is on record stating “animal health products for the exercise will be procured in the Bloemfontein area”.
Joint Operations has it Shared Accord 2025 “promises to enhance veterinary readiness, animal health, and military co-operation” utilising collaboration between the SANDF, the US military and “key stakeholders”.
The last Shared Accord was staged largely in northern KwaZulu-Natal with the Free State province getting a show-in for airborne operations in and out of Air Force Base (AFB) Bloemspruit, adjacent to Bram Fisher International Airport outside Bloemfontein.
The 2022 exercise was the first in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and followed 2017 at the SA Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) in the Northern Cape province with the Eastern Cape province hosting the 2011 and 2013 events.
In 2022, the tactical component of Shared Accord saw maritime force protection operations against conventional and asymmetric threats at sea and in harbours, and air support operations to peace support operations (PSO) for landward forces, using AFB Bloemspruit.
Umhlathuze local municipality, which includes parts of Empangeni and Richards Bay, was the hub of humanitarian operations in 2022. Eight clinics were used as sites where medical services were available to local residents.
According to the US military, Shared Accord is a semi-annual joint training exercise led by US Southern European Task Force-Africa and designed to promote cooperation, interoperability and strengthen partnerships between the US and African countries.
