NORAD, NORTHCOM COMMANDER BRIEFS REPORTERS ON HOMELAND DEFENSE

FROM:   U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Navy Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, briefs reporters at the Pentagon, April 7, 2015. DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz.  

NORTHCOM, NORAD Strengthen Homeland Defense, Says Commander
By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2015 – Four months into his tenure as leader of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, Navy Adm. Bill Gortney conducted a Pentagon press briefing today on priority efforts in homeland defense.

Currently the Defense Department’s only bilateral command, 58-year-old NORAD brings Americans and Canadians together, Gortney said. NORAD works in tandem with Northcom, established in 2002, to protect the homeland from external threats as well as respond to natural disasters, homeland extremists and cyberattacks, he explained.

“[The mission set] encompasses the traditional NORAD role of air defense, as well as … maritime warning,” Gortney said.

Northcom, the admiral noted, rounds out the mission set with its maritime defense and control elements and includes Operation Noble Eagle, U.S.-Canadian homeland security operations that have been ongoing since just after 9/11.

The commands’ responsibilities also include homeland ballistic missile defense and countering transnational criminal networks to thwart smugglers or others who engage in nefarious activity, he said.

Federal military forces provide defense support of civil authorities, which Gortney said has expansive functions across myriad mission requirements.

“Many people think [that support] involves Hurricane Katrina or Super Storm Sandy, an earthquake or a flood, but it encompasses much more than that,” the admiral said. “It’s helping our interagency … and law enforcement partners, predominantly homeland security, in their particular missions.”

Importance of Homeland Partnerships

Gortney described homeland partnerships as NORAD’s and Northcom’s “center of gravity,” with not only a large interagency and law enforcement presence, but some 60 senior federal and senior executive service employees whose tasks cross mission sets.

NORAD and Northcom, he added, also work with governors, the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, and the functional and geographic combatant commands. “[They all work] together to close those seams that the enemy will try and exploit to get after us,” Gortney said.

International Partnerships

Gortney said that as the unified command plan directs, his people emphasize international partnerships with Canada, the Bahamas and Mexico to assess and solve shared problems.

DoD is also “the advocate of the arctic,” Gortney said, adding that he and his team are working to better define roles and doctrine by determining operational requirements, necessary investments and partnerships that will best inform DoD plans for the region.

Focus on Professionalism, Warfighters, Families

Along with professionalism and excellence, which Gortney described as full-time jobs, he told reporters NORAD and Northcom’s people focus on warfighters and their families.

“We rely on those who wear the cloth of our nation to defend our nation,” Gortney said. “It’s both an away game and a near game, and our families are the very stitches that hold [it] together.”

DOD EXPLAINS HOMELAND DEFENSE AND CIVIL SUPPORT STRATEGY

FROM: U.S DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Official Explains New Homeland Defense/Civil Support Strategy
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2013 - The Defense Department incorporated hard lessons learned when it codified its new homeland defense and civil support strategy, said Todd M. Rosenblum, DOD's top homeland defense official.

Rosenblum, the acting assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas' security affairs, said the new strategy is a recognition that the operating environment has changed.

"We face new threats, we have new vulnerabilities, we have new dependencies, most importantly we have a new way to do business," Rosenblum said during a Pentagon interview. "We have to capture that and make sure the department is prepared and directed toward being more effective and efficient as we can be."

The Defense Department is charged with defending the homeland from attack. U.S. Northern Command is further charged with working with state and local entities and other federal agencies to provide support in times of natural or man-made disasters. In the first instance, DOD has the lead. In the second, another federal agency -- such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- has the lead.

The strategy, released in February, looks at the lessons learned from past experiences. DOD officials charted lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina through Hurricane Sandy.

They also looked at changes including the growth of network and communication dependence on private-sector capabilities and "the rising expectations from the president and from the secretary and certainly from the American people that we will be prepared to provide support to civil authorities within a 24- to 48-hour window to provide life-saving, life-sustaining support," Rosenblum said.

This is an incredibly short period of time, he said, and it forces a change in the relationship between DOD and other agencies. The old paradigm was to have civil partners "pull assistance" from DOD, to one where DOD actually "pushes assistance" where it is needed.

"So we are postured to provide assistance as fast and rapidly as possible," Rosenblum said.

The change between Katrina in 2005 and Sandy in 2013 shows the effectiveness of the new strategy, he said.

"We were more efficient, timely and effective in our support to Hurricane Sandy," Rosenblum said. "This is because we did integrated planning within DOD, with our federal partners, and with our state partners. We recognized the need to not wait to be called upon, but to pre-position our support capabilities knowing there's going to be audibles and ad hoc requests."

Planning is at the heart of the strategy, he said. Integrated planning -- with state and local officials, with other federal agencies, with non-governmental entities -- has increased visibility and prominence. The National Guard -- an organization that bridges state/federal efforts -- continues to play a crucial role. But the strategy recognizes that response to disasters requires an all-of-government approach.

The homeland defense mission codifies requirements to provide cyberdefense, Rosenblum said.

"The threats to networks and critical infrastructure increase when we are engaged in operations overseas," he said. "The physical effects of cyberattacks can impact our military operation capabilities and response capabilities."

The attacks themselves, he said, also could produce the type of man-made disaster that would require DOD assistance.

The fiscal environment impacts this -- and all other -- strategies.

"The sequester is real and effecting DOD through readiness, training," Rosenblum said. "It is difficult for the department to plan and budget intelligently, when we don't have budget certainty."

Officials devised the strategy when the department had already committed to $487 billion in reductions over 10 years.

"Sequester has changed the calculus tremendously," Rosenblum said. "But this strategy is not about buying new capabilities: It's about our planning, our processes and our integration."

GEN. JACOBY TESTIFIES REGARDING NORTHCOM'S WATCH

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Northcom Maintains Watch Over Homeland, Commander Says
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2013 - "We have the watch," the commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command told Congress today, emphasizing the dual commands' vigilance in protecting the homeland.

"That's my No. 1 priority mission," Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee, while acknowledging concerns that budget uncertainties could hamper the commands' ability to step ahead of evolving threats.

Jacoby reported on successes of Operation Noble Eagle, a mission stood up immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that continues today, providing "well-honed and uncompromising 24/7 defense of our skies."

But the security environment is becoming "increasingly complex and dynamic," he warned. "Threats are adapting and evolving. Technologies advance and proliferate, creating greater vulnerability in the homeland than ever before."

This complicates the homeland defense mission, he said, from cyber and ballistic missile defense to efforts to counter transnational criminal organizations.

Budget uncertainties add another wrinkle, he said, injecting additional uncertainties in what capabilities can be developed or procured to deal with these threats.

"Readiness concerns are sure to grow," Jacoby said. The most pressing, he said, will be unforecasted cuts to training and exercise programs that he called "fundamental to building partnerships essential for responding to events in the homeland."

"Unexpected loss of service capabilities and readiness could also, in the future, erode our ability to conduct our critical homeland defense missions," he said.

In the midst of these uncertainties, Northcom and NORAD will remain committed to deterring, preventing and defeating aggression against the United States and Canada, Jacoby said.
Meanwhile, Northcom also continues to focus on its mission of providing defense support to civil authorities, as required.

"Our citizens have a high expectation of our ability to defend and support them here in the homeland, and rightfully so," Jacoby told the Senate panel. "In the event of a natural or manmade disaster, Northcom meets those expectations by leveraging a tremendous capability and capacity of the Defense Department to support a lead agency," such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jacoby recognized Northcom's role in interagency response to Hurricane Sandy. "Hurricane Sandy offered us a glimpse of what a complex catastrophe which spanned several states and regions could look like," he said.

Jacoby called the appointment of dual-status commanders during the response one of the most important initiatives in the area of defense support to civil authorities in a decade that promotes a unity of effort among federal and state responders.

He pledged to continue maturing the successful dual-status command construct that Congress approved through the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act "so we will be ready to act swiftly and with unity of effort when the unthinkable happens and we are called."

In addition, he vowed to continue advancing security cooperation efforts with Mexico and the Bahamas. These efforts help the United States and its neighbors stand as a united force against their common goals, he said.

"When it comes to the security of North America and the shared pursuit of enduring stability and prosperity, we cannot afford to work in isolation," Jacoby said in his prepared statement.