Homeland Defense Strategists Have Much To Learn from Afghan, Iraq Operations

By JAMES D. HESSMAN
Senior Writer & Editor Emeritus

DHS (Department of Homeland Security) officials and others with major responsibilities in the homeland-defense arena could learn much from the strategies used by the Department of Defense in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, according to Vice Adm. Herbert A. Browne, USN (Ret.), president and CEO of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).

"Speed, agility, and flexibility were the most essential ingredients to the U.S./coalition successes in both campaigns--and would be the key to an effective response to terrorist incidents in the U.S. homeland as well," said Browne, former commander of the U.S. Third Fleet. "Advance planning, highly integrated communications as well as command-and-control systems, and a truly joint effort that includes a broad spectrum of law-enforcement, disaster-preparedness, and first-responder agencies and organizations also would be needed to deal effectively with terrorist incidents on U.S. soil," he told Sea Power in a May interview at AFCEA's Homeland Security TechNet Exposition in Washington, D.C.

Browne cited the role played by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) in the war against Iraq as "an excellent example" of how homeland-security agencies could learn from the military. "MSC's overseas prepositioning of fully loaded supply ships was the great enabler for the Army and Marines--for the Navy and Air Force as well. Having the combat equipment, weapon systems, ammunition, POL [petroleum, oil, lubricants] products and other consumables predeployed to the most likely overseas regions of conflict saved weeks and perhaps months of preparation time. DHS, FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], the National Guard, and other agencies could follow the MSC example by prepositioning stockpiles of food rations, medicine, and other emergency supplies and equipment at perhaps seven or eight regional sites throughout the United States. This would let them respond to terrorist incidents on very short notice.

"The Air Force's airlift transports as well as Army and Marine Corps heavy-lift helicopters could be used," he continued, "to carry the supplies and equipment from the regional stockpile sites to local airfields, civilian as well as military, in the immediate Ground Zero area."

The private sector could and should participate in homeland-defense exercises, Brown suggested--"preferably on a pro bono basis, both to show proof of concept and to advertise their capabilities for future sales to U.S. and allied governments." Such exercises could include "real-life disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes." The capabilities and equipment demonstrated would be "eminently exportable," he pointed out. "Coalitions don't have to be formed for the sole purpose of responding to military threats. By working together in peacetime--to help the victims of an earthquake in Turkey, for example, or a typhoon in the Western Pacific--the nations of the Free World would develop valuable experience that would help them meet wartime needs as well."

Among the prepositioned supplies and equipment that Browne thinks would be "absolutely essential" to cope with large-scale terrorist attacks and/or natural disasters are Iridium radios, communications vans, and prefab shelters--all of which were on display at the 2003 TechNet International Exposition.

The Marine Corps used Iridium radios "by the hundreds" to maintain small-unit as well as I MEF (I Marine Expeditionary Force) communications during its stunning three-weeks-to-Baghdad campaign, said Lt. Gen. Martin R. Berndt, commander, U.S. Marine Forces Atlantic, one of the senior sea-service speakers at TechNet. Iridium Satellite LLC (headquartered in Arlington, Va.) uses a galaxy of 66 LEO (low-earth orbiting) satellites to provide secure, low-cost communications "from and to any point in the world," said Paul H. Rodriguez, marketing communications manager. The company's rugged, lightweight (13.2 ounces) 9505 handset provides "clear and instant global communications" not only on land but also "at sea and in the air."

Communications (on the macro scale) also were featured at the Titan booth, which had on display a multistation Mobile Emergency Operations Vehicle (MEOV)--developed for FEMA by the company's Applied Technologies Sector (ATS) of Albuquerque, N.M. The MEOV is capable of meeting the full spectrum of federal, state, and local C3 (command, control, communications) emergency-response needs in times of natural disasters and/or in the event of a large-scale terrorist incident. The 15-ton (base weight) vehicle--several of which could be airlifted by an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport, according to Phil Bower, ATS vice president for business development, already has provided support for such headline national events as the San Diego Super Bowl and the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Another unusual TechNet 2003 exhibit was a voluminous Tactical Soft Shelter (TSS) displayed by Alaska Structures of Kirkland, Wash., and Anchorage, Alaska. The company has been building TSS units, in varying sizes and configurations, for more than a quarter of a century and now has "thousands of customers worldwide," according to Christopher Grady of the Kirkland business development office. Since 1976, he said, Alaska Shelters has built literally "tens of thousands" of TSS units for all of the nation's armed forces, for other U.S. government agencies, for private-sector companies and organizations, and for numerous U.S. friends and allies throughout the world. The rugged, compact, durable (10 to 20 year field life), and virtually airtight TSS is easy to erect, Grady said, can provide effective climate control in temperatures ranging from ­80 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and has been used as a command post, tactical operations center, medical clinic, workshop, messing and/or berthing facility, supply and spare-parts depot, and admin headquarters.

Advanced technologies and high-tech equipment are not the most important factors in homeland defense, though--people are. Elsa Lee, a retired Army counterterrorism expert who is now CEO of her own company, Advantage SCI of Redondo Beach, Calif., discussed the human component of the HS equation in an interview with Sea Power. "Training, at all levels of the chain of command," she said, "is the key to an effective, and fast, response to a terrorist incident. That training should start at the top with the president and state governors. Mayors and the chiefs of local fire departments and police departments need training as well. If they and other local officials have not received such training, the first responders--firemen, policemen, nurses and doctors, and many others, including utility workers--simply can't respond as well or as effectively as they have to.

"Communities also have to be trained, and the American people as a whole," Lee emphasized. "If people know what is happening, and how they should respond, they are much less likely to panic. This means raising the public awareness, which in turn means educating the media. Private-sector companies, particularly those working in fields considered part of the critical infrastructure, should conduct their own training programs, for the national good as well as to meet corporate needs."

As Browne suggested earlier, Lee said that U.S. homeland-defense training programs would be "a valuable and highly exportable commodity." She cited the Coast Guard as an example that DHS might emulate: "It sends its own teams of experts to friends and allies all over the world, training their coast guards in port and maritime security, in search-and-rescue operations, and in dealing with natural disasters."

The formal establishment of DHS earlier this year "virtually guarantees," she said, that the United States "will be the world leader not only in naval/military operations and equipment but also in coping with terrorist incidents. Today, any country in the world could be attacked by terrorists--and that suggests to me that we should have our own counterterrorism and first-responder teams available to help train similar teams formed by our allies." *