LATHAM, N.Y. - While the New York National Guard’s headquarters staff wrestled with the challenge of deploying 6,500 Guard members to replace striking corrections officers at 38 prisons, members of the Swedish military were on hand to observe and learn.
Seventeen Swedish officers and three civilians visited the Latham headquarters Feb. 27-28 as part of the State Partnership Program. The New York National Guard and Sweden became partners in the SPP program last year.
The Swedish delegation was in Latham for previously scheduled talks to plan future training and staff engagements.
Those discussions still took place. But the Swedish leaders also got to watch Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of New York, his senior leaders and the headquarters staff work the challenges of the massive state active duty mission.
Swedish officers sat in on the daily commander’s briefing, during which leaders in the field reported back to Shields on the mission.
Swedish Maj. Gen. Johan Pekkari, the chief of the Swedish Defence Staff’s strategy unit, said he was impressed with the professionalism of the briefings.
The Swedish team also visited the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse. Airmen there remotely operate the MQ-9 Reaper.
“I’ve seen what you have done here as part of the prison operation yesterday and visited the MQ-9s in Syracuse, and that was impressive,” Pekkari said.
Although almost a third of New York’s 16,500 Army and Air National Guard members were on the prison mission, Shields said it was still essential to conduct the meetings.
“It’s important for us to know the development between Sweden and the New York National Guard. We’re super happy you’re here. I did not want to postpone or cancel, because it’s just too important to us,” Shields said.
“We have met a couple of times now, and it is so easy to work with you, and how easy we connect and work with each other, we have talked about real business, real exercises and how to develop our capabilities,” Pekkari said. “It was an excellent experience to see some of your current operations and the capabilities you have.”
The Swedes and New Yorkers broke into working groups to plan training between the two organizations through 2027, according to New York Army National Guard Maj. Melanie Padilla, the New York SPP director.
“The SPP engagements that were agreed upon fosters cooperation between the New York National Guard and Sweden to allow our organizations to strengthen our interoperability and allow for our organizations to learn from each other,” Padilla said.
At the same time the Swedish delegation was visiting New York, nine New York Army National Guard Soldiers were in Sweden observing a Swedish river crossing exercise, Padilla said.
This summer, the Swedish Army will send observers to participate in a similar engineer training exercise in New York with the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion and the 204th Engineer Battalion.
A port security exercise with Swedish naval personnel and the New York Naval Militia, the U.S. Coast Guard, and New York City police and fire units is planned in New York Harbor later this year.
The New York Naval Militia has also been invited to participate in a port security exercise in Sweden this year.
The New York Air National Guard’s 152nd Air Operations Group will host Swedish Air Force leaders during U.S. exercises and will travel to Sweden to train there.
The 274th Air Support Operations Squadron, a New York Air Guard unit specializing in close air support, will also train at home and in Sweden with their counterparts.
The 106th Rescue Wing, based on Long Island, will work on search and rescue exercises with their Swedish counterparts.
Padilla said the New York Army National Guard’s 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 369th Sustainment Brigade and the 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade are also planning exercises in the next two years.
He said they will begin with up to 55 people involved in 2026 and grow to a mission involving up to 1,000 people in 2027.