In my capacity as Commander of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), I am also Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the counterpart to the Commander of Canada Command (Canada COM), our partner to the north. These three organizations have complementary missions in protecting our homelands, and they work together closely.
NORAD—a more than 51-year-old bi-national U.S.-Canadian command governed by the NORAD Agreement—is responsible for aerospace warning and control and the relatively new and developing mission of maritime warning for the two countries. NORAD ensures U.S. and Canadian air sovereignty through a network of alert fighters, tankers, airborne-early-warning aircraft, and ground-based air-defense assets cued by interagency and defense surveillance systems.
USNORTHCOM, a unified combatant command established on 1 October 2002, has the joint missions of homeland defense-incorporating maritime defense, plus missile defense of the homeland—and defense support of civil authorities (DSCA).
Both commands share headquarters staff and use the same consolidated command center. And USNORTHCOM's civil authorities support work reinforces the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among other agencies.
Multiple Domains
Operating in a variety of domains, USNORTHCOM must prepare for homeland defense and DSCA in each simultaneously. The air, space, land, maritime, and cyber domains can all be affected by natural disasters or manmade threats and certainly each can have an impact on the others.
For example, the maritime domain can be affected by threats from the air, cyberspace, and the sea. If we can be attacked in all of these by man or Mother Nature, then we must defend against or at least mitigate the threat in each of them. Our goal and role is to ensure that the Department of Defense is properly positioned to do that—leading if it's a case of military homeland defense, supporting DHS if it's a case of homeland security, and working effectively with DHS and its components in operational situations that require transition between homeland defense and security, which certainly can happen.
Threats to our homeland have obviously changed in this new century. As DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano noted on 30 July 2009: "We cannot forget that the 9/11 attackers conceived of their plans in the Philippines, planned in Malaysia and Germany, recruited from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and carried them out in the United States." Of course, much of our homeland defense and security effort is focused overseas. Thus, we conduct a daily counterterrorism video conference with U.S. Central Command and others. Our view must be global, in all domains.
Progress—It's About Teamwork
We are committed to support the many components of DHS and other federal agencies, when requested and directed by the President or Secretary of Defense. In fact, I spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill advocating for resources needed by other federal agencies and for our partners in the National Guard. Speaking about the significance of soft power to our country, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates mentioned the importance of investing more in the Departments of State, Agriculture, Justice, and other government agencies that can provide the reconstruction capacity we need in some of our overseas operations.
The same is true for us in the homeland. Under the National Response Framework, DOD must be prepared as a supporting agency for every single emergency support function. So it is important to us that DHS and other primary agencies for the various emergency support and federal law enforcement functions be adequately funded so they can carry out their border-security, maritime-surveillance, intelligence-fusion, and disaster-response roles.
This is especially crucial in certain homeland security functions for which we in DOD are not organized, trained, or equipped. But we also know that terrorists and Mother Nature don't exactly create disasters for which the pre-planned response at every level of government is predictably perfect and with unlimited resources. So we make ourselves ready, if needed, as quiet professionals capable of making a difference and doing it in support of state governors and federal agencies.
National Guard, Reserve, and Other Agencies
In our headquarters, nearly 10 percent of USNORTHCOM's full-time military staff draws from the National Guard and Reserve, who bring strong experience from the states. We have 52 different federal agencies represented in or near our headquarters every day. These are senior representatives provided by their agencies to work directly in our planning and emergency operations. They include people from the State Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, along with DHS and many of its elements, i.e., the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Safety Administration, and the Coast Guard.
We also have liaison officers from other combatant commands and an FBI representative who briefs me routinely on counterterrorism operations. We, in turn, have two action officers at the National Counterterrorism Center and another in the FBI's National Joint Terrorism Task Force, plus officers in various parts of DHS, other unified commands, the National Guard Bureau and Canada Command, as well as a Washington office.
After Hurricane Katrina, we placed a defense coordinating officer, with a supporting defense coordinating element, in each of the FEMA regions. This team helps plan for the kinds of events that can occur in each particular region, so that we can be prepared to provide tailored support when it's required, requested, and directed.
In addition to our interagency associates, we have great international partners. Nearly 130 Canadians are in our headquarters, primarily focused on NORAD air, space, and now maritime-warning operations, but also integrated into our strategy and plans, logistics, policy, and intelligence cells. We share mutual support with our partners in Canada Command through a bilateral Civil Assistance Plan that we signed in February 2008. This provides the technical avenue through which we can help each other quickly, as when a Canadian C-17 airlifted American medical patients before Hurricane Gustav came ashore last year. It worked very well.
Finally, just as the Department of State and DHS have cooperative programs with counterpart Mexican government agencies, our theater security cooperation activities extend to our friends in the armed forces of Mexico—with whom I think we enjoy the best relationships we've ever had. In our headquarters, senior Mexican Navy and Air Force liaison officers serve to support the Mexican government in its fight against the drug cartels, which helps make our homeland safer.
Maritime Collaboration
The relationship we have with our Sea Service partners is strong. We've built an interagency team that can collaborate smoothly, train together, and operate effectively. Routinely, we have Coast Guard or FBI officers on board our Navy ships to support maritime law enforcement when they ask for Navy assistance. NORAD, USNORTHCOM, the Navy, and the Coast Guard collaborate in many homeland-defense operations. For example, our air defense of the National Capital Region includes Coast Guard helicopters, with crews trained to do airborne intercept that helps us vector away aircraft infringing on restricted air space.
We also partner in mine countermeasures activity. As an Air Force fighter pilot, I never thought much about the bottoms of ports. But I have learned that over time, tides, storms, and other events change their structure. It is nice to know what's there so that if we do get intelligence of a new maritime explosive device here in our homeland, we can understand what's already under the water in our ports and quickly survey to see what's different. With interagency cooperation and key Navy and Coast Guard roles, as a team we're completing these important port surveys.
We have just over 30 Coast Guardsmen (active duty and reserve) fully integrated into our staff, including an outstanding USNORTHCOM Deputy Director of Operations. We're engaged with the Coast Guard's Pacific and Atlantic area commands, and we're very supportive as that service realigns itself into an operational command structure. We're also integrated into each other's maritime planning and execution processes. For example, USNORTHCOM served as DOD lead, teamed with the Coast Guard as DHS lead, in co-writing the national Maritime Domain Awareness Concept of Operations.
With Canada Command, we're pursuing development of a Canada-U.S. Maritime Defense Plan. Supporting the Navy lead in the DOD Maritime Domain Awareness campaign, USNORTHCOM is the lead operational manager for technology demonstration projects, entitled Comprehensive Maritime Awareness and Maritime Automated Super Track Enhanced Reporting, and we teamed with the U.S. Pacific Command to develop the Maritime Domain Awareness Joint Integrating Concept. We've participated in the coordination of a DHS-Department of Transportation-DOD interagency memorandum of agreement to guide U.S. Government participation in the international Maritime Safety and Security Information System. Our two major annual USNORTHCOM exercises, Ardent Sentry and Vigilant Shield, foster vigorous collaboration among interagency and international maritime and law-enforcement organizations, a strong team effort that gets better each year.
Within our headquarters we've established a private-sector office that works closely with its DHS and FEMA counterparts. The maritime industry plays a big role in national security, and the private sector is a huge part of maritime security around the world, just as it owns and operates the vast majority of American transportation and critical infrastructure. So we've looked for ways to partner with private-sector shipping companies, pilots' associations, and others to help us create shared situational awareness of what's in the domain so we can, in my words, "sort the friendlies." Having to look at two or three vessels of concern is a lot better than having to sort through 200.
Unity of Effort
Homeland defense and security and disaster preparedness and response require team play at all levels. With this in mind, we at USNORTHCOM are constantly focused on communication, coordination, collaboration, and integration. Traditional military unity of command is key to successful military operations—including DSCA operations. But the term doesn't fit very well into a whole-of-government, interagency federal/state/local/tribal, private-sector National Response Framework lexicon, which is about collaborative unity of effort.
Each of our partners at these levels is unique. They have their own authorities, usually mandated by law. This includes the private sector. Nowhere in law does it say that DOD is in command of any civil law enforcement agencies. Posse Comitatus prohibits it, and we are especially sensitive not to step outside those guidelines. Our role in homeland security is to build confidence among our partners and be there in support when they ask for it, bringing capabilities and capacities that DOD can provide to help our civilian partners to protect our citizens.
Teaming with others begins with building relationships. We work closely every day with our civilian partners, agencies like DHS, Health and Human Services, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as the private sector. Since she's been in office, Secretary Napolitano and I have created a relationship that allows us to be successful as a team, with USNORTHCOM in support of DHS. This is critical when the nation comes under the stress of a natural or manmade disaster. We host a biweekly, informal Interagency Planner Synchronization Working Group at the national level. We actively participate in the DHS-led Integrated Planning System, and in the National Exercise Program. We do our best to integrate planning, training exercises, and responses—not only of joint DOD forces, or of Title 10 and National Guard forces on state duty, or of combined U.S. and foreign forces (as with Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav), but with all of our civilian partners. We have to be able to do that under stress. It's not smart to start exchanging business cards at the scene of a disaster. This begins with building trusted, knowledgeable working relationships before disaster happens-one of the most important things we do every day.
Homeland Defense Support of Civil Authorities
We provide support to other agencies during unique and varied operations like the Presidential inauguration, the United Nations General Assembly, G-20 and other summits, the Super Bowl, the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, space shuttle launches, and wildland firefighting wherever required and requested by civilian officials around the country. There's annual flooding in the Midwest and elsewhere, with which we can be asked to help, in addition to the Army Corps of Engineers' separate authorities, responsibilities, and appropriations as established by law.
In response to the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis back in August of 2007, USNORTHCOM provided Navy salvage divers to go in and recover the remains of people killed—in support of the Department of Transportation, which was supporting the local sheriff. We did that deployment in a few hours after being tasked, with just a few phone calls. One of the reasons we monitor events around the country, anticipate potential requests, and lean forward to prepare, is so we don't have a cold start and can respond quickly.
We support civil agencies that do counter-drug and border-security operations of many kinds, including legally authorized tunnel detection and logistical and sensor support to law enforcement agency interdiction of illegal trafficking. We also support and conduct environmental response. We have to understand how the other partners operate, and how we can integrate our support with them. For example, last year after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, we used Navy sonar towed behind helicopters to help survey the channels into the ports of New Orleans and Galveston to allow for rapid and safe opening of those ports to commercial traffic.
Let's be clear: when supporting civil authorities, we come to a state or a region only on the direction of the President and/or Secretary of Defense, typically when federal support has been requested by a governor, putting the right assets in the right place at the right time. When we're no longer needed, we go away. By law, we can also be directed to support civil law enforcement agencies, especially in their efforts to stop illicit drug smuggling across our borders. But we're not doing civil law enforcement.
Our Approach to DSCA
We added a word to our USNORTHCOM mission statement a couple of years ago to imprint it into our culture. If you walk into our command center, you'll see about a 25-foot-wide banner, with 14-inch-tall letters, that says, "Anticipate." If we're not thinking ahead, if we're not planning in advance, then we'll not respond well. And the response will always be later than needed. We'd be slow and clumsy instead of resilient, creative, adaptive, and effective in crisis response.
That doesn't mean you'll always preclude an event from happening. Mother Nature has a tendency to do things her own way. But if you plan for those kinds of events, if you've built good interagency working relationships, if you've done smart things like working with FEMA in its pre-scripted mission assignments system, then you're much more likely to be ready to mitigate and respond when bad things happen in America. I do not accept the attitude of "stuff happens." It's our job to anticipate and prepare, with the resources we have, under applicable laws and directives.
Every day, our command center monitors 35 to 40 events across North America, including maritime events involving vessels of interest. We need to ensure that each of these events is visible to us, and we anticipate the implications of any one of them turning into a crisis, fortunately, very few do. But if one does, we can be in a position to respond immediately. Our command center shares information with some 150 other command centers in North America. That's a big business for us, and the sharing of information is central to everyone's success.
International friends are key to our homeland defense and security, especially our neighbors here on this continent. A Canadian general was in the NORAD Operations Center directing initial air defense over our homeland as 9/11 unfolded. NATO airborne early warning crews flew in support of NORAD over our homeland after 9/11. The Canadians evacuated American medical patients as Hurricane Gustav approached last year. Mexican Army troops fed displaced Americans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and they are now fighting the drug cartels that smuggle illegal drugs into the United States. If you tally the deaths, the injuries, and medical costs, and the societal impact of the crime drugs cause, the financial and strategic impact to our nation is huge. As in the neighborhood around your home, you're a lot safer if good neighbors are watching out for you. Canada and Mexico are very important to us.
Present and Future Challenges
My focus, beyond readiness to respond to any homeland crisis, is on the future. We're not just adapting to change, we're working to anticipate and help lead it. Following is a short list of some of the key challenges we're helping to shape now and for the future:
- Maritime Domain Awareness;
- Arctic Presence, Safety, and Security;
- Ballistic- and Cruise-Missile Defense of the Homeland;
- NORAD Aircraft Recapitalization and Radar Sustainment (including Title 10, National Guard, and Canadian assets-as well as FAA radars on which we depend);
- Resourcing and Fielding of Three Nationally-Responsive CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive) Consequence Management Response Forces (CCMRF);
- Theater Security Cooperation with Our North American Neighbors;
- Access to Reserve Forces for National Disaster Response;
- Improving DOD Incident Awareness and Assessment tools for DSCA Missions;
- Collaborative Planning, Training, Exercises and Operations with Federal Interagency and State Partners;
- Defending Our Cyber Networks, plus Roles & Missions Definition for Cyber DSCA;
- Pandemic Readiness (USNORTHCOM is assigned as DOD global pandemic influenza planning lead) and Preparing for Potential Pandemic DSCA Roles.
Our solemn obligation in USNORTHCOM, as in NORAD with Canada, is to defend our homelands. We support civil authorities as part of the larger federal effort, when directed under law. We are volunteers who have sworn to support and defend the Constitution. We're proud to defend our citizens and to support the civil agencies that protect them. Ready now, we're actively anticipating and preparing for a changing future, which we'll help shape as a trusted team player, guarding what you value most.