FRENCH AIR FORCE GENERAL SPEAKS ABOUT TRANSFORMATION AT NATO CONFERENCE

Map:  France.  Credit:  CIA World Factbook.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Commander Describes NATO Transformation Efforts
By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service

NORFOLK, Va., Dec. 12, 2012 – Partnerships, education and training are indispensable for NATO, the organization’s supreme allied commander for transformation said here today.

French Air Force Gen. Jean-Paul Paloméros spoke at a media roundtable during the 2012 Chiefs of Transformation conference hosted by his command. The event brings together hundreds of NATO, partner, industry and government agency professionals who strive to leverage work across the alliance by sharing best practices and expanding collaboration among the nations.

Paloméros described Allied Command Transformation efforts as an evolving endeavor rooted in collaboration and coherence with a focus on efficiencies and innovation.

"We are deeply involved in the heart of the U.S. military forces, which is good because we get a great opportunity for common connections, engagement and training," Paloméros said. "We know that what we build today will be indispensable for the future, and what we don’t build today [we’ll need] for the future."

The hub of transformation across the alliance, partner nations, military, government, non-government agencies and academia, Allied Command Transformation gleans and interprets information to identify opportunities to not only keep pace, but stay proactive in an ever-changing security environment, Palomeros said.

"We are here to share our experience and our vision," he said. "[The command] works to supply the forces with the support they need [in] their respective challenges and tackle that in a wide and open way, not only from the military perspective, but with a comprehensive vision, approach and solutions."

The general touted strategies such as Smart Defense and the Connected Forces Initiatives as avenues to increase collaboration and buffer against the inevitability of increasing financial austerity throughout the world.

Funded by participating nations, Smart Defense, he said, is an initiative encompassing 24 multi-national projects across logistics, munitions, aviation training and maritime capabilities and more to deliver improved operational effectiveness.

The Connected Forces Initiative helps develop the framework and interoperability by bringing a human-centered approach to the table, Paloméros said.

"Partnerships are the focus of these initiatives and we need to ensure we have consensus and share ideas from the very highest levels down," he added.

The successes of major joint and coalition training exercises, such as one currently in progress at the Joint Warfare Center in Stavanger, Norway, may be the most visible solutions in establishing a collective vision of NATO’s future operating environment, Paloméros said.

"We are able to fulfill the task in this very important exercise preparing the staff and the forces for their Afghanistan engagement," he said. "We take the best out of every nation committed within NATO, including the partners, [and] the best is possible."

Paloméros characterized the challenge of maintaining relevance in a post-Cold War and post-Afghanistan environment as a "difficult but sensible question" in terms of NATO’s future, particularly after 2014 when many troops are projected to return from deployments.

"The perception of this world could be different from one country to the other in NATO and this is … the reality," Paloméros said. "We are here to give coherence to these different visions and propose a common perspective for the alliance, as far as the military answer to those challenges."

The general said recent summits in Chicago and Lisbonyielded useful discussion and solution-driven brainstorming for effectively steering NATO’s endeavors to maintain peace -- all while balancing political and military aspects with the consensus of 28 countries.

"This is the role of NATO: preparing itself for future challenges, being there, being relevant and making sure we coordinate that with the partners and coordinating that with partners.Presence is part of prevention," the general said.

Paloméros added that despite NATO’s successes, the need to continually pursue balance remains.

"We [need to] keep focusing on the priority shortfall areas and the minimum capability requirements of NATO," Paloméros said. "We are working on a day-to-day basis to ensure that every country can participate in NATO according to its own national priorities, perspectives, sensibilities and qualities.

The general did not dismiss the importance of cyber defense, intelligence, surveillance and response and information technology, particularly through distance learning, a critical component of training throughout the alliance.

"I see that as very promising in how we tackle the issue of cyber defense in NATO," Paloméros said. "We are going in the right direction in keeping the overall deterrence policy of NATO clearly set up in the Chicago defense package."

In the long run, the alliance, as with many government organizations, can only plan based on the projections and assumptions of resources, so fostering fruitful discussions between politicians and military leaders to better understand crucial requirements is key.

"That’s why we are here … for the countries; they are the stakeholders that provide us with the human resources and the budget," Paloméros said. "Every country adopts its own vision with their economic and financial perspectives, [and] we will try to find any opportunity for connection between the different forces."

SOUTHCOM RELYING ON PARTNER NATIONS TO HELP ACCOMPLISH SOME MISSIONS

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
One of two interceptor boats delivered to Grenada in May under the Secure Seas U.S. maritime security assistance initiative, part of U.S. Southern Command's theater engagement efforts helping regional partners deter maritime threats. DOD photo by Michael Wimbish  
Southcom Strives to Maximize Theater Engagement Efforts
By Donna Miles
MIAMI, June 7, 2012 - U.S. Southern Command continues to move full steam ahead on its array of theater engagement programs, but recognizing budget realities, is exploring new, more efficient ways to conduct them and to maximize their impact, a senior military leader here reported.

"We all understand what the future looks like. We know the trend is downward for future funding," Army Maj. Gen. Gerald W. Ketchum, director of the command's theater engagement directorate, told American Forces Press Service.

"So we are going to have to be smart," he said. "We probably aren't going to be able to do all the things we have done in the past, so we are going through this very deliberate process right now of ensuring that where we are spending our money is, in fact, where we need to be doing that."

That, Ketchum explained, involves scrutinizing every activity within the command's "robust toolkit" of engagement programs to eliminate those with marginal return in favor of those with proven results. "So you have to ensure that the activity you select truly is going to accomplish what you want and is going to provide the [desired] end results," he said.

Southcom's theater engagement programs run the gamut, from bilateral and multilateral exercises, training programs and educational exchanges to a security assistance program that helps partners meet their defense and modernization needs.

All are designed to help partner nations build their own military capacity and to improve their ability to operate with each other and the United States, Ketchum said. Because partner-nation capability varies widely across the region, Southcom tailors its engagements to address specific requirements, identified through close coordination with the partners themselves as well as the command's service components, U.S. embassy teams and U.S. service members operating in the theater.

Ultimately, these engagements aim to create strong partnerships able to stand up to regional challenges, Ketchum said. "We truly want to be the partner of choice," he said. "And we want those partnerships to be enduring."

The success of the effort has a direct impact on the United States, Ketchum said. "We are a community of nations, and we are completely interlocked because of globalization," he said. "And the threats we face do not end at borders. They are international in nature, and therefore, it takes an international response to address those challenges."

As the Southcom staff studies the way ahead for these programs, Ketchum said it's already well-versed in the creative, cost-effective ways of operating laid out in the defense strategic guidance issued in January.

"We have been doing that in Southcom already for a very long time," he said. "You start to talk about low cost, small footprint, efficient ways of doing business, and [Air Force] Gen. [Douglas W.] Fraser, [Southcom's commander], would say you are describing Southcom."

For example, a unique organizational construct at the command helps ensure its theater engagement efforts build on each other without expensive and unnecessary overlap. Unlike other geographic combatant commands that spread these programs across a variety of staff offices, Southcom consolidates them under one umbrella – the J7 theater engagement directorate that reports directly to Fraser.

"At the very elementary level, this prevents duplication," Ketchum said. "You don't want to have one program doing something and another program doing something very similar – the left hand not talking to the right hand – to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money."

But more importantly, we are looking for synergy," he said.
Ketchum used the example of a security assistance effort that helps a partner nation's military acquire new boats to patrol its waterways. "Wouldn't it make sense, right after that, to come in and provide training to the operators and maintainers?" he said. "And then maybe after that, wouldn't it make sense to have them participate in an exercise using that asset?"

The Secure Seas maritime security assistance initiative, managed by U.S. Southern Command, is helping in this way. The United States is providing interceptor boats and associated equipment, state-of-the-art command and control communications systems and training and technical support to nine Eastern Caribbean nations to help them deter threats associated with transnational organized crime.

Marine Forces South Commander Maj. Gen. John M. Croley joined U.S. Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Larry L. Palmer at the first delivery ceremony, in Dominica, May 31. The initial delivery package included similar provisions for Grenada and St. Lucia.

This building-block approach to theater engagement works particularly well when the staff who oversee each piece of the larger effort work closely together and report to the same boss, Ketchum said. "Organizationally, it is much easier if they are all part of the staff where individuals providing the equipment are sitting in the next cubicle or down the hall from the guy who is organizing the training," he said. "That's what we have here in the new U.S. Southern Command headquarters building."

The new headquarters, which opened in December 2010 and replaced numerous smaller buildings in the Miami area, also includes representatives from other agencies who bring insights and experience to the decision-making process.

"The whole idea is to look at this holistically, to take all our tools, and with that awareness and visibility, to look at a whole-of-government approach," Ketchum said. "It is absolutely critical to everything we do here at Southcom. It's not a sound bite. It's something we have embraced."