STANDING READY TO DEFEND U.S TERRITORY

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Northcom, NORAD Stand Ready to Defend Nation, Commander Says
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2014 – The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 provided an important reprieve by enabling short-term readiness fixes and selected program buybacks of significant importance, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said today.

But the challenges posed by sequestration and the Budget Control Act remain, Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr. told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Defense Department’s ability to plan and decide strategically and find innovative solutions to complex national security challenges is hampered by the budget uncertainty, he said.
“The recent Bipartisan Budget Act only postpones, but does not eliminate, the risks to our future readiness and ability to meet the missions specified in the defense strategic guidance of 2012,” Jacoby said before calling on Congress to find a permanent fix.

The department made a “hard choice” when it implemented the furlough of civilian employees as a cost-cutting measure, the general said. “This decision compromised morale, unsettled families and caused us to break a bond of trust -- one that is absolutely critical to the accomplishment of our mission,” he added.
Equally unsettling, Jacoby said, is that NORAD's ability to execute its primary mission has been subjected to increased risk due to the degradation of Air Force combat readiness.

“With the vigilance and the support of Air Combat Command and the [U.S. Air Forces in Europe], we've been able to sustain our effective day-to-day posture, but that comes at the cost of overall U.S. Air Force readiness, which continues to hover at 50 percent,” the general said.

Threats to national security are becoming more diffuse and less attributable, the general noted. Ultimately, he said, crises elsewhere in the world can rapidly manifest themselves in the United States and make the nation more vulnerable.
“While we stand constant vigil against asymmetric network threat activities, Russian actions in the Ukraine demonstrate that symmetric threats remain,” Jacoby said. “Al-Qaida and transnational criminal networks continue to adapt, and they do so much more quickly than we do.”

To deter and defeat these globally networked threats, the United States must prioritize its support to its partners in the law enforcement community and the international community, the general said.

And, “tangible evidence of North Korean and Iranian ambitions confirms that a limited ballistic missile threat to the homeland has matured from a theoretical to a practical consideration,” he added.

Northcom and NORAD are working with the Missile Defense Agency to address concerns about the potential for proliferation of these lethal technologies, Jacoby said. Together, the three agencies are investing in a “tailored solution to address the challenges that advancing missile technologies impose on our ballistic missile defense system architecture,” he noted.

Northcom and NORAD are working together to address a variety of other challenges, the general said. As seasonal ice decreases, for example, the Arctic is evolving into an increasingly important strategic issue, he told the Senate panel.
“Therefore, we continue to work with our premier Arctic partner, Canada, and other stakeholders to develop our communications domain awareness infrastructure and presence in order to enable safety, security, and defense in the far north,” Jacoby said.

Maintaining an in-depth defense of the nation requires partnerships with neighboring countries, the general said.

“Our futures are inextricably bound together. And this needs to be a good thing in the security context,” he said. “The stronger and safer they are, the stronger our partnerships, the safer we all are collectively. And this creates our common, competitive security advantage for North America.”

Northcom also stands ready to respond to national security events and to support the federal response to man-made or natural disasters, he said.

“Our challenge remains to not be late to need,” the general said. “The men and women of Northcom and NORAD proudly remain vigilant and ready, as we stand watch over North America and adapt to the uncertainty of the global security environment and fiscal realities.”

SUPPORTING THE GLOBAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS NETWORK

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

New Authority Supports Global Special Operations Network
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

TAMPA, Fla., May 15, 2013 - A new arrangement that gives U.S. Special Operations Command responsibility for manning, training and equipping special operators assigned to regional combatant commands is beginning to pay off in strengthening the global special operations force network, the Socom commander reported here yesterday.

Navy Adm. William H. McRaven told attendees at the 2013 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference that the new command structure amends a shortcoming that had left Socom with "no institutional relationship" with regional special operations commanders.

Then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta approved the change in February. "In essence, now U.S. Special Operations Command has authority over all special operations [forces]," McRaven said, including those assigned to U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Central Command, U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Africa Command.

This authority also will extend to U.S. Northern Command, which is standing up its own special operations element.

A key part of the arrangement, McRaven said, is that these special operators and their regional special operations commanders will remain under the operational control of their respective geographic combatant commander.

"That is very important," he said, emphasizing that geographic commanders will determine what missions special operators conduct within their areas of responsibility.

"We will not do anything," McRaven said, repeating it for emphasis, "without the approval -- underline that -- of a geographic commander and the chief of mission [or] ambassador."

The admiral elaborated on the arrangement during his testimony before the House and Senate armed services committees in March.

"As the Socom commander, with some unique exceptions, I do not command and control any forces in combat or crisis," he said. "I am a 'supporting commander' to geographic combatant commanders and the chiefs of mission.

"It is my job to provide them the best special operations force in the world," he continued. "It is their job to employ those forces in support of U.S. policy."

Yesterday, McRaven told the forum of special operators and defense contractors he advocated the change of authority to better support theater special operations commanders and their assigned forces.

"I want to be held responsible for the manning, training, equipping and resourcing of the theater special operations commanders," McRaven said. That way, he said, if a theater special operations commander doesn't have the best talent or isn't well resourced, there's no question about who should be held accountable.

"The answer ought to be, 'You come here to Socom because we are now responsible for it,'" he said. "It really is about, 'How do we better support those theater special operations commanders?'"

Special Operations Command already is making good on its new responsibility.

Army Brig. Gen. Sean P. Mulholland, commander of Special Operations Command South, reported that his command, long stretched for manpower and resources, is slated to triple in size over the next few years. Meanwhile, the funding lines will start to shift based on McRaven's emphasis on bolstering the theater special operations commanders, he said.

Navy Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, commander of Special Operations Command Africa, reported that his command has received additional funding for technical requirements, as well as temporary augmentees from the Socom staff. The new command arrangement "is absolutely empowering" the theater special operations commanders, he said.

But there's an additional benefit in the communication links the new command relationship allows. McRaven now conducts weekly videoconferences with all of his theater special operations commanders, encouraging them to share information about their activities and challenges.

"Before long, we begin to knit together the global problems that we are seeing," he said. "And we are passing information [among the theater special operations commanders] that is the beginning of enhancing this global [special operations force] network."

NORTHERN COMMAND OUTLINES PRIORITIES

The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:
Northcom Prioritizes Homeland Defense, Cyber, Partners
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 13, 2012 - Priorities for U.S. Northern Command include expanding partnerships, keeping eyes on air, space, cyberspace, land and sea domains, and outpacing all threats, the Northcom and the North American Aerospace Defense Command commander said today.

Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, Jr., testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2013 defense budget request for the first time as Northcom commander. Northcom was established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to defending the homeland and help civil authorities respond to natural and other disasters. Its area of responsibility includes Canada and Mexico.

Jacoby said his priorities include advancing and sustaining the U.S.-Canada partnership of NORAD, monitoring the unique and fast-changing domain of the Arctic, and taking care of the men and women of Northcom.

"This past year has been busy. We've synchronized our activities with many partners and done our part to realize efficiencies that we've worked through the budget process," Jacoby told the senators.

As part of the budget, he said, Northcom trimmed its workforce by 141 full-time positions this year, and for fiscal 2013 has requested reducing its operations and maintenance funding by about 6 percent.

"But with the resources and authorities at hand and maintaining our vigilance," the general added, "we'll be able to continue to defend and support the American people."
Outside its primary homeland defense mission, some of Northcom's most immediate concerns include cyber security, transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States from the border with Mexico, and security issues that arise from the predicted melting of Arctic sea ice, opening parts of the Arctic over the next decade to human activity.

Northcom's main responsibility in the cyber domain, Jacoby said, "is consequence management in the event of a catastrophic cyber attack on this country. Northcom could certainly be called upon to provide support to civil authorities in the recovery. But we think our role is broader than that."

Northcom has "some work to do in defining what [constitutes] an attack in the cyber domain," he said. "It's a very collaborative process we're doing as combatant commanders along with [the U.S. Strategic Command] and its ... Cyber Command. That's a work in progress."

Jacoby said he believes "it will be a matter of policy to clearly define what is an attack or what isn't an attack," and he hopes such a policy can be put in place over the next year.
Until then, Jacoby said, he continues to work closely with Cyber Command commander Army Gen. Keith Alexander "to ensure that we have ample warning to understand if there is a cyberattack or malicious cyber activity that ... could compromise the defense of the homeland."

To achieve that end, Jacoby said, Northcom has good cooperation across DOD and with partners in the Department of Homeland Security.

Some aspects of transnational organized crime are another priority for Northcom. President Barack Obama in July released a strategy for combating such crime, and Northcom and the U.S. Southern Command are the main entities through which the Defense Department engages in the Western Hemisphere.
The mandate increases as more nations ask their own militaries to take on internal security responsibilities, Jacoby said.

"What we do on the border [with Mexico] as the Department of Defense is to provide support to the lead agencies -- the Department of Homeland Security, primarily, and the Justice Department's organizations, as well," he said. "We're eager to provide that support."

Partnering with U.S. Customs and Border Protection gives soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines good training opportunities, he added.

"It is a great relationship that's grown stronger and stronger over time," Jacoby said. "Just this month, we've conducted Op[eration] Nimbus II in the Tucson sector, where 1st Armored Division soldiers feel they got better training than they've gotten prior to a deployment at any time in the past 10 years."

In that operation, more than 500 soldiers from Fort Bliss and Fort Hood in Texas supported the U.S. Border Patrol with intelligence and surveillance assistance.
"I think it's critical to continue to strengthen and expand our partnerships in the Northcom headquarters," Jacoby said. "We have over 32 agencies represented there and eight law enforcement agencies. We've never had better sharing of information across the interagency."

Thousands of miles north, the Arctic is becoming an emerging an area of interest for Northcom.

The Navy's Task Force Climate Change and U.S. science agencies have predicted that by 2020 or so, commercial ships may be able to transit the Arctic, where sea ice is in long-term decline.

The region's more than 1,000 miles of coastline and potential sovereign rights to several hundred thousand square miles of ocean gives the United States a strong national security and homeland defense interest there.

"We have an opportunity, while we watch the Arctic begin to open up, to get ahead of potential security requirements," Jacoby told the senators.

To that end, he added, Northcom's strategic framework is to work closely with the Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and other partners in the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and stay closely tied to partners in Canada.
Jacoby said the Defense Department supports the Convention of the Law of the Sea because it would give the United States a role in long-term negotiations that will involve the Arctic and its resources.

In 2004, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended U.S. accession to the treaty in a unanimous vote, but a vote of the entire Senate has not yet taken place. The United States has signed, but not ratified the treaty.