Brazilian Naval Officer Observes NY Naval Militia Exercise as Part of State Partnership Program

IONA ISLAND, N.Y.- A Brazilian naval officer braved cold spring rain, and a choppy Hudson River alongside the crew of the New York Naval Militia’s Landing Craft 351 on May 30, 2026 as they executed Exercise Empire Challenge 2026.

“The weather is much different in Brazil,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ramon Lucena dos Santos, as he tried to keep warm while watching the Naval Militia team establish an exclusion zone in the river as the exercise played out.

Lucena was in New York as part of the State Partnership Program training relationship between Brazil’s military and the New York National Guard. The New York National Guard and Brazil have been partners since 2019.

The New York Naval Militia is the largest state naval force in the country, with a strength of over 3,000 personnel. The force is part of the New York Military Forces which includes the Army and Air National Guard.

The Naval Militia’s Military Emergency Boat Service operates a fleet of 11 patrol vessels, including two landing craft-style boats.

On May 30 and 31, 20 Naval Militia members joined with members of the New York Guard, the state’s volunteer defense force, and employees of the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, or DHSES, for a series of drills.

The drills tested communications skills, the use of drones for a search and rescue mission, and the Naval Militia’s ability to shut down maritime traffic in an emergency.

At the same time, members of the New York National Guard’s 53rd Troop Command were conducting a command post exercise at nearby Camp Smith Training Site, based around a response to a hurricane hitting the Hudson Valley and New York City.

In one training scenario, a storm surge moving up the river caused boats to drift away from a marina, and the Naval Militia was asked to establish an exclusion zone in the Hudson, while local law enforcement reacted.

In another drill, a team launched a UAS, short for Unmanned Aerial System — the formal name for a drone—from Iona Island to locate missing and injured people on shore.

Finally, the Naval Militia mobile command trailer, and New York Guard shortwave radio operators, got a chance to exchange messages with the DHSES’s “Command One”, emergency response headquarters.

His job, Lucena explained, was to watch how the various agencies worked together and see what his Navy can learn.

“The integration of all the many agencies are very useful for the overall success of the exercise,” Lucena said. Mike Carl, a radio engineer with the DHSES Office of Interoperable and Emergency Communications, said participating in the Empire Challenge Exercise, first staged in 2017, is always useful training.

“It started small, kind of being players together, responding to the bad day type event, we built a relationship, we learned what each other's capabilities were, and then we enhanced that as the exercise has moved along through the years,” Carl explained.

The annual exercise has simulated challenges ranging from natural disasters to biological weapons attacks while working with federal, state and local agencies and the National Guard, said Marine Capt. Recordo Demetrius, the officer in charge for Empire Challenge.

“It’s always good to see a different set of eyes, how they interpret how we operate, they can give some positives or even some feedback that we might not know,” Demetrius said.

Having a Brazilian officer watch this year’s exercise was especially valuable, he added.

“Maybe we function in a bubble internally within our organizations, but them being on the outside, looking in, saying, hey, maybe you want to look at this, have you tried this? That is a great perspective, having foreign operators look at some of the stuff that we do,” Demetrius said.

Rear Admiral MaryEtta Nolan, the commander of the Naval Milita, said her team is always looking for opportunities to work with New York’s State Partnership Program militaries in Brazil, South Africa, and Sweden.

Working with other services, both American and from other nations, “allows us to combine different perspectives into our training,” Nolan said.