Northern Command - Additional Details

by Colin Robinson,CDI

The U.S. Northern Command, the military's new unified command charged with defending the continental United States from attack, is moving towards formal establishment, which is scheduled to occur on Oct. 1 at the command's new headquarters at Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, is somewhat different from the rest of the regional unified commands that control military operations around the world — the European and Southern Commands, for example. Beyond the central mission of deterring and defending against threats to the United States within its assigned area of responsibility, shared by all the five regional unified commands, NORTHCOM will have the additional task of providing 'military assistance to civil authorities including consequence management operations,' when directed by either the president or the secretary of defense. This reflects the supporting role that the military will play in the overall homeland security effort, that of backstopping civilian response efforts when ordered to do so.

More details are now emerging about the structure of the new command. In discussion with his staff earlier this year, Air Force Gen. Ralph Eberhart, the commander in chief designate, rejected proposals that would have seen NORTHCOM stand up with a structure paralleling the other unified combatant commands' four components from each service, which might well have lead to substantial headquarters' staffs running with little to do, as the command is not actually expected to control many actual units day-to-day. Instead, in the spirit of the headquarters (HQ) staff cuts ordered by the 1998 Defense Authorization Act, the only new unit that the new command will bring will be the Northern Command HQ itself, and even that will be balanced by the amalgamation of two other unified commands. As NORTHCOM is being established in Colorado Springs, the Space Command, which was formerly based there, will merge with the Strategic Command based at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb.

The only forces reporting to the new command will be those of NORAD, the combined U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command, due to Eberhart's concurrently being NORAD's commander in chief, and three relatively small homeland defense units, one activated since the attacks of Sept.11 last year. The Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security, currently headquartered in Norfolk, Va., coordinates the land and maritime defense of the continental United States, and military assistance to civil authorities. The new unit was established in January. It directs the Joint Task Force Civil Support, based at Fort Monroe, Va., which supports civil authorities in the event of a weapons of mass destruction attack on the United States, as well as Joint Task Force 6, which is the Defense Department's southern land border counter-drug force, based at Fort Bliss, Tex.

However, based upon briefings given by NORTHCOM staff at Colorado Springs, it can now be ascertained that each of the four services' Atlantic-oriented regional commands will be available in their entirety to the Northern Command if necessary, in addition to their other tasks. Thus the Air Combat Command will also be designated Northern Command Air Forces (NORTHAF), for any homeland tasks, while in the same way, the other three services' commands will add a 'Northern' title and tasks. The Coast Guard, in the execution of their homeland security duties, will coordinate with the Northern Command when necessary.

The new command's relationship with the National Guard, which will probably have the first military forces on the scene of any terrorist attack, is also becoming clearer with the formation, at the Washington-based National Guard Bureau headquarters, of a Homeland Security Directorate. In the event of a terrorist attack, the governor of the state concerned, as commander in chief of that state's National Guard, will be responsible for the decision on whether to call up the Guard for state service. If that state's Guard resources are overwhelmed, support can be requested from both neighboring states' civilian and National Guard homeland security resources through an arrangement known as the Emergency Mutual Assistance Compact. While this process is under way, the Homeland Security Directorate will monitor the situation and keep NORTHCOM advised of the progress of disaster response. If the situation escalates to the point where calling the Guard into federal service may become necessary, this communications process will bring NORTHCOM officials into the picture fully informed. At that point, Joint Task Force Civil Support might well deploy to the affected area to oversee the military contribution to the relief effort. The Task Force is commanded by a National Guard major general.

One other point regarding the National Guard's relationship with the new command has just recently been settled. Earlier this year, Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) proposed that the National Guard supply the deputy commander in chief of the new command, in the form of a bill introduced in February. In a Sept. 19, 2002, news release, the deputy commander in chief was announced as the current deputy commander of Space Command and NORAD, Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, thus shifting the current NORAD/Space Command hierarchy into NORTHCOM without change. Maj. Gen. H. Steven Blum, former commander of the National Guard's 29th Infantry Division, has been assigned as the new command's chief of staff; and, depending on how the Guard's role develops within the command, a guardsman could be given the deputy commander's position in the future. However, it would be preferable first for Guard officers to gain greater experience in various posts at the three-star level before being thrust into this critical high-level command position, as the National Guard only has one officer even at three-star, lieutenant general rank, and that is the director of the National Guard Bureau. Given the compressed time available before the new command is activated, a decision was obviously made that to try inserting officers thought specifically to have superior homeland defense expertise was more trouble than it was worth. To be fair, it must be noted that both Eberhart and Anderson have probably gained a good deal of homeland defense experience since the formation of NORTHCOM was announced earlier this year.

In summary, several important mechanisms of the new command are now becoming clear. Only time will now tell how well the command performs along the road to full operational capability, set for a year after formation on Oct. 1, 2003.