New York National Guard signs State Partnership Program agreement with Brazilian armed forces

Agreement inked on March 14 provides for training exchanges and joint training opportunities

Latham, NY (03/15/2019) — Major General Raymond Shields, the Adjutant General of New York and Brazilian Navy Rear Admiral Guilherme da Silva Costa, representing the Brazilian Armed Forces, signed an agreement creating a training partnership between the New York National Guard and Brazil's military on Thursday, March 14, 2019.

The signing took place onboard the U.S.S. Intrepid Air and Space Museum, permanently docked on Manhattan's West Side.

"Today we usher in our new partnership with the great country of Brazil at this formal agreement signing ceremony on board the historic U.S.S. Intrepid," Shields said. "The New York Military Forces look to the future as we move forward together to build a strong partnership with the Federative Republic of Brazil."

The partnership is part of the National Guard's State Partnership Program which pairs state National Guard's with the militaries of countries around the world in bilateral training and exchange partnerships.

Air Force General Joseph Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau and Navy Admiral Craig Faller, the commander of the United States Southern Command, also participated in the ceremony.

"I can think of no better State Partner for Brazil than the State of New York, and no better place to hold this ceremony than in beautiful New York City…home to the largest Brazilian immigrant community in the United States," Faller said.

The goal of the state partnership program is to allow National Guard Soldiers and Airmen to learn from military members of other nations, while sharing American military expertise with friends and allies.

"As of today, we have partnerships with 83 nations or to put it another way, over 40 percent of the nations on earth are part of the program," Lengyel said.

Brazil has strong ties to New York State, Shields said, ranging from the Brazilian-American communities in Mount Vernon in Westchester, Astoria in New York City and the "Little Brazil" section of Manhattan, the annual New York City Brazil Day in September and some 300 businesses with ties to both New York and Brazil.

The State Partnership Program helps advance United States strategic and diplomatic goals while engaging in partnerships with friendly militaries worldwide to advance shared security goals.

"The New York National Guard has tremendous capabilities in the areas of strategic airlift, emergency response, and mobilizing and deploying Soldiers and Airmen within the United States and overseas. We will learn more by partnering with the Brazilian military while also sharing lessons learned with Brazilian military personnel," Shields added.

"The State Partnership Program is about people; Soldiers and Airmen meeting with counterparts and peers, sharing lessons, best practices and building those critical long term relationships," Shields said. "We are excited and eager to work with the Brazilian Armed Forces to expand military capabilities, interoperability, friendships and international security."

The New York Air National Guard, with five flying wings and the Eastern Air Defense Sector, is the largest Air National Guard in the country.

The New York Air National Guard flies the only aircraft in the U.S. inventory with the ability to land on ice and snow. These LC-130s are also the largest aircraft with that capability in the world. New York Air National Guard Airmen also have expertise in strategic and tactical airlift, air and sea rescue, and remotely piloted aircraft operations.

The New York Army National Guard includes a divisional level headquarters as well as an aviation brigade, infantry brigade, and support brigade headquarters as well as military police and other specialist's elements. New York Army National Guard leaders also have great experience in logistics, mobilization and operations learned from deployments to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

The New York Military Forces also include the New York Naval Militia, composed of more than 2,500 members of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Reserve who have tremendous experience in naval operations to share.

The New York National Guard is involved in all levels of homeland security with two weapons of mass destruction civil support teams, a Homeland Response Force designed to deal with chemical, biological and radiological attacks, a cybersecurity protection team, and a standing security augmentation task force in New York City.

The New York National Guard also has practical experience in responding to a variety of weather emergencies ranging from Superstorm Sandy here at home tin 2012 to deploying elements to support Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands following a string of hurricanes in 2017.

New York National Guard Soldiers and Airmen can learn from their Brazilian counterparts in these areas while also sharing their knowledge of operations and training and lessons learned from deployments.

New York has maintained a State Partnership Program relationship with the South African National Defense Force since 2003.

This partnership has resulted in a number of exchanges, most recently in September 2018 when two New York Air National Guard aircraft and 38 New York Soldiers and Airmen were part of the U.S. contingent at South Africa's African Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 18, Waterkloof Air Force Base.

Because New York has one of the largest National Guards in the country the New York National Guard has the ability to conduct two state partnership programs.

As the partnership progresses, a New York National Guard bilateral relations office will be assigned to the United States Embassy in Brasilia to plan and coordinate training and exchange programs between the two nations.

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