Northern Command begins training exercises

Northern Command begins training exercises
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. Northern Command, which is expected to rely on electronic intelligence and is scheduled to be activated Oct. 1, gave an overview of its initial activities Wednesday (Aug. 14) in preparation for large-scale validation exercises next month.

Formed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States' first domestic combat command is moving into facilities once occupied by the Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base here. Space Command was merged into the Strategic Command at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska when the Northern Command was established in April.

The command's specific responsibilities for electronic intelligence and computer warfare are still to be decided, said Capt. Ned Carroll, deputy chief of staff for the Northern Command. For example, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) will not be dissolved or merged into Strategic Command, but will operate side by side with the Northern and Strategic Commands at facilities such as the Cheyenne Mountain operations center. Norad is a multinational command that also involves Canadian forces. Northern Command could add special land and maritime units to existing intelligence and operations bases, Carroll said, but would not seek to displace other agencies.

"Norad will not become a subset of Northern Command," Carroll said. "Is there a potential for Norad to expand? Certainly. Are the Canadians interested? Certainly. But the Northern Command is only six weeks old, so much of this remains to be worked out."

On paper, the Strategic Command took over the bulk of responsibility for computer warfare and for national missile defense when the Space Command was merged into it, Carroll said. But in practice, areas of computer network defense and missile defense that apply to North America will be handled by Northern Command. The Northern Command will have partial oversight over such domestic military groups as Air Combat Command, Navy Atlantic Fleet and Joint Task Force 6, Carroll said.

Relations with the Department of Homeland Security and civilian law enforcement are much more loosely defined, he said. In a mid-July interview with The New York Times, Gen. Ed Eberhart, the head of the Northern Command, raised the possibility of reviewing the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to allow greater military involvement in law enforcement. But Carroll said that the Homeland Security Department is still in too early a stage of formation to even consider the operational issues of how Northern Command will deal with the department.

What is clear, however, is that Northern Command will have to deal with local, state and federal civilian agencies through the Secretary of Defense or the president, and only through their direction. Carroll said that the mayor of a city could not call up the Northern Command for help, but would have to go through Defense Department channels. The White House or Defense Department would then determine from Washington the limits to which Northern Command could assist in civilian missions such as disaster relief or law enforcement.