U.S. Army North (Fifth Army), the Army Service Component Command (ASCC) to U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), is the Army headquarters dedicated to Homeland Defense (HD), Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA), and Theater Security Cooperation (TSC) for the North American Theater. Every day, U.S. Army North stands ready in partnership with joint, interagency, and multinational partners to prevent, shape, and succeed in the complex environment of North America.
The U.S. homeland is a highly sensitive and challenging operational environment. While relatively safe from nation-state attack, it remains vulnerable to an array of natural and man-made threats, many of which strike with short or no notice. Government responses must be timely -- not late to need. Federal military forces and civilian agencies must fully understand, and act in accordance with, law and established frameworks for providing support to civil authorities. The American people expect federal agencies, including the Army, to provide rapid, visible, and effective assistance during complex domestic disasters and pre-planned events.
In this complex environment, U.S. Army North leads the effort to create joint and multinational interoperability, as well as synchronized, rehearsed plans for Unified Land Operations. U.S. Army North's preparedness ensures that, even with a no-notice event, operations in the homeland will occur as planned events and not mere happenings.
COOPERATIVE DEFENSE TO PROTECT THE HOMELAND
As the 2014 QDR highlights, our predominant security challenges in the homeland no longer stem from state actors, but rather from non-state actors such as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). As the name implies, TCOs respect no boundaries -- a fact that has become clearer over the past few decades as cartels previously centered in South America have continued to expand their networks in North America. Moreover, TCOs have the potential to exploit and exacerbate the other, already complex threats we face in North America in the form of natural and man-made disasters. Shared challenges call for shared solutions and commitment. Thus, it is in the mutual interest of the United States, Canada, and Mexico to unite to develop a regional capacity to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat these threats posed by TCOs and other non-state actors. U.S. Army North continues to work with its partners to achieve mutually reinforcing and interdependent planning and operations to confront our threats and protect our citizens and our way of life.
As our military has learned in other theaters of operation, our most sustainable victories often come from supporting our partners' objectives. This lesson is clearly evident in the relationship between U.S. Army North and the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA). The third largest army in the Western Hemisphere, SEDENA is a highly capable and trusted force in the region. To this strong relationship that dates back over 40 years, the U.S. Army brings valuable experience gained over 14-plus years of persistent conflict.
In 2015, our bilateral collaboration expanded as we conducted three Regional Border Commander's Conferences intended on creating a venue where SEDENA's Regional senior leadership meets with U.S. border counterparts on a greater frequency and exchanges information meant to tackle common and shared border threats.
In July, as a follow-on reciprocal airborne jump exchange from last year, members of the 82nd Airborne Division conducted a combined jump into SEDENA's National Training Center followed by a combined jump with members of SEDENA's Airborne Brigade into Ft Bragg, North Carolina.
Lastly in August, the first ever simultaneous battalion level training exchange occurred with a battalion from NORTHCOM's Regionally Aligned Force (RAF), 1st SBCT 4th ID, training with Mexican forces at their National Training Center, while a Mexican battalion equivalent trained at Ft Carson, Colorado with the remainder of 1st SBCT 4th ID. This singular event marks an exponential advance in our shared relationship and starts to get to tactical interoperability between our two Armies.
Our main focus in this area over the next year will be capitalizing on the combined training advancements, to explore how Army North can assist them as they expand into Peacekeeping Operations, and to continue to develop and lead NORTHCOM's supporting efforts to SEDENA's southern border security strategy -- a strategy that has direct security implications to the United States.
The foreign military sales program between our two nations is a sustained success and it continues to grow as SEDENA enhances its domestic response capacity with major end items such as UH-60s and HMMWVs. In the coming year, U.S. Army North will continue to work closely with SEDENA to support their institutional programs such as organizational maintenance and occupational specialty development.
To further consolidate these regional successes in the future, we will continue to develop the partnership with the newly established organization within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Joint Task Force West (JTF-W) as they execute DHS' Southern Border and Approaches Campaign Plan (SBACP). This partnership will greatly enhance the effective integration of inter-organizational and multinational security efforts.
With Canada, our long term goal is to maintain the interoperability built over 14 years of shared multinational operations. As both our nations undergo military reductions, we will continue to maximize every training opportunity to ensure our ability to operate interdependently at home and abroad. This year, 1st SBCT 4th ID and a total of 1,200 participants (the largest contingent we have sent to date) from the Total Army participated in Canada's premiere culminating exercise -- MAPLE RESOLVE -- to validate their high-readiness brigade. In the coming year, in addition to our well-established military exchange program, our goal is to expand to brigade level shared training opportunities.
DEFENSE SUPPORT OF CIVIL AUTHORITIES (DSCA):
U.S. Army North and its down trace subordinate commands stand ready to respond, when directed, to any and all possible natural or man-made disasters within the United States.
While the defense of our homeland and support of civil authorities require the efforts of all Services, DSCA is manpower intensive and depends on face-to-face support where American citizens live. Here the Total Army -- Regular, Reserve, and Guard -- plays a central role. Soldiers and Civilians from all components are engaged in the homeland on a daily basis, in capacities ranging from personnel serving within Defense Coordinating Elements (DCEs) in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to U.S. Army North leading and coordinating DSCA missions. All this planning starts at the FEMA Regional level, where the ten DCEs, supported by the Army North staff, ensure DoD requirements are identified and fully integrated as part of a whole of government response.
The regional focus for 2016 was the Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake / Tsunami response plan. Army North validated this plan during NORTHCOM's annual DSCA exercise, ARDENT SENTRY. Also during this exercise, Army North further enhanced its disaster interoperability with Mexico as both sides responded to a highly destructive hurricane making landfall along the U.S./Mexico border. In 2017, the focus will be on support requirements for the New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake response plan.
Army North continues to oversee the training proficiency of the entire DoD CBRN Response Enterprise (CRE). The CRE is drawn from the Joint Force and the Total Army comprising a total of 18,000 personnel organized in varying response packages either under state or federal control for response. Army North annually validates the federal response JTFs - the Defense CBRN Response Force (DCRF) and two Command and Control CBRN Response Elements (C2CRE A and B).
This year, that exercise, VIBRANT RESPONSE, validated the mission readiness of the three federal response entities including robust participation from federal and state agencies, including the FEMA, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Pennsylvania State Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For the second year in a row, the Army forces allocated to the brigade and below elements of the JTFs participated in a field training exercise (FTX) at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) to confirm their mission readiness. Next year, in coordination with U.S. Forces Command (FORSCOM), the training of the brigade and below federal forces will integrate with the validation of the three JTFs to replicate a near NTC-like experience at Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck Urban Training Center.
Also this year, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) requested DoD support in housing of unaccompanied children that had crossed into the United States along our Southwest border. U.S. Army North coordinated and oversaw the housing operations at Holloman AFB until mission complete.
The Soldiers and Civilians of U.S. Army North serve throughout North America, alongside our domestic and multinational partners, to help protect our fellow Americans from natural and man-made disasters and defend the homeland in depth in order to build a more secure North America. Army North embraces the characteristics of our complex environment, and understand that our successes are measured by the successes of our partners. Our singular purpose is readiness to protect the American people, upon whose everyday lives our successes or failures have a direct impact.
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