US Mission Geneva » Department of Defense

Panetta Describes U.S. Military Transition in Afghanistan

DGN — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:48:13 +0000

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, speaks with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters on February 2.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
February 2, 2012

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the United States is aiming to draw down combat forces from Afghanistan starting this year and end its combat role by late 2013, with a measured transition throughout 2014 to one of training and advising local security forces.

“As the president has said, we’re committed to an enduring presence” in Afghanistan, where U.S. military and civilians will continue to assist with transition and development, he said. Panetta spoke with reporters February 1 en route to Brussels for the annual NATO defense ministers meeting.

Afghanistan and the NATO security mission there are expected to be central topics during the defense ministers’ meetings in Brussels, February 2–3. Panetta will travel to Germany for the 48th annual Munich Security Conference February 3–5, where he will be joined by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“We’ll be involved with training, advising and assisting, not only the Afghan forces, but we’ll continue to have to provide enabling forces for ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] as well as Afghanistan,” he added.

The transition to Afghan control of security operations is part of a strategy that was developed during the 2010 Lisbon NATO Summit, Panetta said. “That’s what the hope was … we could reach a point in the latter part of 2013 that we could make the same kind of transition we made in Iraq, from a combat role to a train-and-assist role,” he said.

And that does not mean U.S. and NATO forces will not be combat ready, because they will be, he added.

“We are going to be largely transitioning to a support role for the Afghan army as they take over these different areas in the future,” Panetta said.

While the U.S. military will draw down its forces, there will continue to be a significant diplomatic and development presence across the country, spearheaded by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Under current plans, the Pentagon will draw down U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan to approximately 68,000 by the end of 2012.

Panetta said that 2014 becomes a year of consolidating the transition and making sure that those gains hold so that the United States can move toward an enduring presence after 2014. An essential key to Afghanistan’s security is the Afghan National Security Force and whether it has the assets to be a sufficient and sustainable force for the future, which will be at the center of talks in Brussels, he added.

“Without question, there has been significant improvement in the security situation on the ground” in Afghanistan, he told reporters. “The Taliban has not been able to regain any of the lost territory. They haven’t conducted a successful operation to regain territory.”

U.S. and allied forces have continued to weaken the Taliban insurgents, Panetta said. “And in addition to that, everyone says that the Afghan army is much more effective at engaging in operations,” he added.

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Rescuing Iranian Sailors? U.S. Says It Is Just Doing Its Duty

DGN — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:40:12 +0000

An Iranian mariner greets U.S. Coast Guardsmen after his rescue on January 10. All countries have a duty to respond to vessels in distress under international law.

By Stephen Kaufman
IIP Staff Writer
Washington
January 17, 2012

Recent actions by U.S. Navy and NATO ships to rescue Iranian mariners endangered by shipboard mechanical problems or pirates reflect a longstanding international custom on the world’s high seas that whenever a seafarer is in distress, the first duty to respond outweighs any other concerns.

In recent weeks, meeting the call of those in distress has happened several times.

NATO reported January 16 that the Italian warship ITS Grecale responded to the Tahriri, an Iranian-flagged traditional sailing vessel known as a dhow. The Tahriri had suffered engine failure and was dead in the water with a crew of five Iranians and nine Pakistanis on board. On January 7, the Tahriri had been rescued from suspected Somali pirates by the Danish navy vessel HDMS Absalon.

Both the Italian and Danish ships are part of NATO’s Counter Piracy Task Force operating around the Horn of Africa, known as Operation Ocean Shield. Two U.S. Navy vessels, the frigate USS De Wert and the destroyer USS Carney, are part of the NATO naval operation.

The duty to rescue ships in distress has been common maritime practice for centuries. Its most current codification is in Article 98 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

According to Article 98, all countries must require their flagged vessels “to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost; to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may reasonably be expected of him; after a collision, to render assistance to the other ship, its crew and its passengers and, where possible, to inform the other ship of the name of his own ship, its port of registry and the nearest port at which it will call.”

In their rescue of the Tahriri’s crew, Italian sailors offered food and water, and they worked throughout the night in an effort to repair the damaged engine. Although the engine could not be fixed, NATO reported, the crew chose to stay with their vessel rather than accept an offer to be transported to the nearest port.

In separate instances, U.S. military vessels have also recently come to the rescue of Iranian sailors. On January 5, the destroyer USS Kidd, part of the USS John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, detected a suspected Somali pirate vessel alongside the Iranian-flagged fishing boat Al Molai in the northern Arabian Sea. At the same time, the Al Molai’s ship’s master sent a distress call saying that pirates were holding him captive, according to a January 7 article by the American Forces Press Service (AFPS).

When the USS Kidd sent a team to board and search the vessels, they found that 15 suspected pirates had been detaining 13 Iranian sailors for several weeks, and the newly freed Iranian crew said the Al Molai had been used as a “mother ship” for pirate operations.

The U.S. Navy crew took the Iranians onboard and provided them with food, water and medical care.

AFPS quoted Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey saying to CBS News January 7 that the sailors on the USS Kidd had responded “as we do to calls of distress” and with a commitment to protect both the freedom of the seas and the freedom of navigation.

“We … recaptured the ship, took the pirates into custody, and returned the ship to Iranian control,” Dempsey said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS that pirate interdiction is “what we do in that part of the world,” and that the U.S. Navy’s action “sends an important message to the world that the United States is going to abide by international rules and international order.”

Before dawn on January 10, the Iranian cargo dhow Ya-Hussayn used flares and flashlights to broadcast a distress signal after its engine room flooded and its crew determined that the vessel was no longer seaworthy, according to AFPS. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy saw the signal and rescued its six Iranian crew members, who were on the dhow and an attached life raft.

The Monomoy’s crew treated an injured crew member and provided the Iranian crew with water, blankets and halal meals before coordinating their transfer to an Iranian coast guard vessel later that day.

Asked by the media about the incident, Pentagon press secretary George Little simply said on January 10 that the Monomoy’s actions are “consistent with meeting our obligations to rescue vessels in distress.”

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Trans-Atlantic Partnership Vital to Global Security

DGN — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:29:48 +0000

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
IIP Staff Writer
Washington DC,
January 09, 2012

The trans-Atlantic relationship remains an essential source of stability in an unpredictable world, and Europe is the principal U.S. partner in promoting global and economic security, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon says.

The strategy outlined by President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta January 5 reaffirms the U.S. commitment to European security and ensures continued ability to meet NATO commitments, Gordon said during a briefing January 9 at the Washington Foreign Press Center. He added that the new Defense Strategy also aims to enhance U.S. cooperation and the ability of U.S. military weapons and equipment to easily work with those of European partners facing global challenges.

“If you look around the world and see where America is operating globally, you will see in so many cases how closely and importantly we work with our European allies and partners,” said Gordon, who is the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. “We have worked together on challenges around the world, most recently in Libya, ongoing in Afghanistan, but also Kosovo and the Balkans and the Horn of Africa.”

The new strategy, unveiled at the Pentagon, reflects both a shift in global strategic thinking and the realities of a more austere national budget climate mandated by the U.S. Congress. The strategy is based on an eight-month comprehensive defense review by civilian and military leaders at the Pentagon, the U.S. military, the departments of State, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. intelligence community. Obama ordered the review to guide defense planners on priorities and spending over a decade with an estimated savings of more than $450 billion.

“It requires all elements of our national power, working together in concert with our allies and our partners,” Obama said. “We’ve succeeded in defending our nation, taking the fight to our enemies, reducing the number of Americans in harm’s way, and we’ve restored America’s global leadership.”

In the introduction to the strategy, Panetta said that the United States is at a strategic turning point after a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that it is time to shape a joint force for the future. He said the force that emerges will be smaller and leaner, but also agile, flexible, ready and technologically advanced.

Echoing the president’s remarks, Panetta said the strategy calls for an armed force that has a global presence emphasizing security interests in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, while still maintaining defense commitments to Europe and NATO, and strengthening alliances and partnerships across other regions.

Gordon said that at the 2010 NATO Lisbon Summit the allies agreed on a new strategic concept aimed at preparing the alliance to meet 21st-century security challenges. He said that during the upcoming NATO Summit in May in Chicago, the alliance will review progress being made. “The schedule for the Chicago summit has yet to be finalized, but I think you can expect, at a minimum, the alliance to focus on three key priorities: the transition in Afghanistan, NATO’s capabilities and its partnerships.”

The defense strategy guidance announced by the president is an important step in moving the United States toward the goals being set for the Chicago summit, and it further commits the United States to a number of things already made clear for European defense, he added.

“We will continue with our deployment of missile defenses, the European Phased Adaptive Approach, and this will of course include putting assets in Poland and Romania, a radar [station] in Turkey and the homeporting of missile defense–capable Aegis destroyers in Spain,” Gordon told reporters.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said January 6 that, as the new strategy notes, meeting security challenges cannot be solely the work of the U.S. military.

“Diplomacy and development are equal partners with defense in our smart power approach to promoting American interests and values abroad, building up our economic prosperity and protecting our national security,” Clinton said. She added that this new guidance is a critical element in an integrated approach to strengthening American leadership in a changing world.

“And it promotes our strategic priorities, including sustaining a global presence while strengthening our focus on the Asia-Pacific region; deterring our adversaries and fulfilling our security commitments; investing in critical alliances and partnerships, including NATO; combating violent extremists and defending human dignity around the world; and preserving our ability to respond quickly to emerging threats,” Clinton said.

Julianne Smith, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy, said at the Foreign Press Center briefing that the reason for releasing the comprehensive review now is because the United States just ended its military operations in Iraq and is in a transition with its mission in Afghanistan.

The strategy is designed to ensure that the United States maintains the best military capability in the world, avoids weakening its armed forces, balancing any force reductions and ensuring that they are taken strategically, and finally ensuring that the United States maintains a force with long-term viability, Smith said.

The strategy is designed to ensure that the United States maintains the best military capability in the world, avoiding weakening its armed forces by balancing any force reductions and ensuring that they are taken strategically, and maintains a force with long-term viability, Smith said.

“The strategy places heavy emphasis on ensuring and maintaining U.S. global leadership, clearly a pillar, a long-standing pillar, in our foreign and defense policies,” Smith said. That means, she said, that the United States must sustain and strengthen its robust network of international relationships and capabilities.

Gordon travels to Germany, Lithuania and Denmark January 10–14. In Berlin he will meet with senior German government officials and discuss U.S. and European engagement on global issues at the Körber Foundation, the State Department said January 9. He will then travel to Vilnius to attend the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s annual Snow Meeting on Euro-Atlantic security issues and meet with high-level Lithuanian and other Baltic government officials. In Copenhagen, he will meet with European Union political directors and hold discussions with senior Danish government officials.
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U.S. Rescues Iranians Held Hostage by Pirates

DGN — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:57:06 +0000

The USS Kidd, conducting counter-piracy and maritime security operations, responds to a distress call from the Iranian-flagged fishing dhow Al Molai.

By VOA News
Staff Writer
07 January 2012

A U.S. Navy ship has rescued 13 Iranians being held hostage by pirates in the Arabian Sea, days after Iran warned U.S. vessels not to return to the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. Navy announced Friday that it detected the pirates’ skiff alongside the Iranian fishing vessel, the Al Molai, on Thursday after receiving a distress call from the Iranian ship. The Navy said a team of military personnel from the destroyer USS Kidd boarded the Iranian vessel, or dhow, and detained 15 pirates who were holding the Iranians hostage.

The Navy said the Iranian vessel had been under the control of the pirates for more than a month and was being used as a headquarters for pirate operations. It said the hostages are believed to have been forced to help with piracies.

A U.S. Navy spokeswoman told VOA Friday that the U.S. naval team was aware before the rescue that the dhow was flying an Iranian flag. Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich says vessels are “obligated” to assist any “distressed” sailors, regardless of nationality.

Rebarich said the head of the Iranian crew expressed his “sincere gratitude” to the U.S. Navy, saying he feared that without the U.S. assistance, his crew would have been held hostage for months.

The Navy said the Iranians were given food and medical care, and were released wearing USS Kidd embroidered hats. Navy officials say the sailors are now on their way home and most likely not aware of the recent tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The USS Kidd, conducting counter-piracy and maritime security operations, responds to a distress call from the Iranian-flagged fishing dhow Al Molai.

Iran has recently threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf, and warned the U.S. not to operate aircraft carriers in the area — something the U.S. routinely does. U.S. officials have made clear that operations will continue as usual in the Gulf.U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday the U.S. has not communicated with Iran about the rescue that she called a “humanitarian gesture.”

“The very same ship and set of vessels that the Iranians protested on its last voyage through Hormuz, the John C. Stennis carrier strike group, just rescued this Iranian dhow from pirates,” said Nuland.

The pirates — believed to be Somalis — are in detention at sea on the U.S. aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

U.S. Military Pours Supplies, Equipment, Skills into Japan Relief

DGN — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:54:37 +0000

U.S. sailors and Marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan load humanitarian assistance supplies to support Operation Tomodachi. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Nicholas A. Groesch

By Charlene Porter
Staff Writer

Washington — More than 18,000 U.S. military personnel have delivered 240 tons of supplies to quake-stricken Japan, with 19 ships and more than 130 aircraft participating in an operation they’re calling Tomodachi, the Japanese word for “friend.”

The supplies come in the form of food and fuel, drinking water, hygiene supplies and another 500,000 gallons of fresh water to pour on the overheating nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Navy divers are clearing cluttered harbors for navigation. Pilots are delivering aid and personnel, flying over a ravaged landscape of collapsed bridges and blocked roads damaged in the March 11 earthquake and the punishing tsunami that followed.

Video footage like none ever seen before showed walls of water pounding ashore, tossing boats and vehicles like bathtub toys, crushing buildings and crumbling infrastructure. When the water receded, much of that debris was sucked back out into the ocean, and U.S. naval personnel joined Japanese counterparts to begin clearing channels out of Hachinohe on the northeast coast of Honshu Island.

The teams mapped the waters to establish routes for boats to operate safely through the channel. Using sonar identification, dive teams recovered foreign objects that were potentially blocking safe passage through the channel.

“Over 4 million square meters of harbor have been sonared,” said Chief Petty Officer Jon Klukas. “We have also pulled about five tons of wreckage, consisting of various items like cars, large [shipping containers] and diesel generators.” Klukas was quoted in a story published by the U.S. Pacific Command.

Navy teams worked with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) for three days at Hachinohe starting March 25, according to a U.S. Embassy press release, and will be moving on to clear other damaged ports in this maritime nation: Miyako, Kamaishi, Ofunato and Sendai.

Admiral Robert F. Willard, commander of the Pacific Command, said soon after the military’s role in the relief operation began that the U.S. Navy is in Operation Tomodachi “for the long haul.”

A U.S. military ship prepares to transport a water pump to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where hundreds of tons of radioactive water must be removed.

HIGH-LEVEL COMMUNICATION

As U.S. and Japanese military personnel work side by side in the relief effort, their national leaders are also keeping the lines of communication open. President Obama spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the evening of March 29 in their third telephone conversation since the disaster struck. The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of close U.S.-Japanese cooperation in dealing with the ongoing nuclear emergency. President Obama reaffirmed U.S. support for recovery efforts, for which the prime minister expressed his gratitude.

On March 30 the U.S. ambassador to Japan, John Roos, met with Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki at the U.S. Embassy. Tanigaki requested the meeting, and the two spoke of the situation facing the country, including the U.S. involvement in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The ambassador expressed his gratitude for the close cooperation between U.S. and Japanese experts in the fields of health, safety and nuclear issues and reiterated that the United States will continue to stand by its friend and ally as Japan recovers from the earthquake and its aftermath.

SOLDIER TO SOLDIER

The victims of the disaster, the rescue volunteers, and the U.S. and Japanese military personnel are performing jobs not for the fainthearted. Sifting through the rubble of an epic catastrophe must be an extremely difficult job. But these military crews undertake this work with one more handicap: They don’t speak the same language. Coordination of efforts must be channeled through trained translators who jump the language barrier to deliver instructions on the other side. JSDF Captain Masanori Ide is one of those liaison officers; he has come to appreciate the friendship of the two countries on a personal level.

“I am moved that all the people I am working with here are dedicating themselves to helping out not because they were ordered to, but because they care as friends,” Ide said. He is quoted in a story filed from the Pacific by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Juan Manuel Pinalez.

Pinalez reports similar remarks from the Americans contributing to the effort.

“It’s been a great honor and privilege to serve side by side with our Japanese partners,” said Lieutenant Colonel William Arick of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. “Our liaison officer partners’ enthusiasm, work ethic and dedication to help their country is a testament to the Japanese military and people and is humbling to witness.”

Coalition Operation Takes Aim at Libyan Air Defenses

admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:33:39 +0000

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, briefs reporters at the Pentagon on the launch of Operation Odyssey Dawn, a coalition effort to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya and protect the Libyan people from Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, March 19, 2011. DOD photo by Cherie Cullen

Defense.gov News Article

Operation Takes Aim at Libyan Air Defenses

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2011 – Coalition members fired 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libya’s integrated air and missile defense system today as a precursor to setting up a no-fly zone over the country, Pentagon officials said.

In Brazil, where he is on the first leg of a three-nation trip to South America, President Barack Obama said no U.S. ground troops will deploy to Libya, but that the United States would provide “unique assets” to enforce the United Nations Security Council resolution meant to protect the Libyan people from the forces of Moammar Gadhafi.

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, briefed reporters at the Pentagon on the launch of “Operation Odyssey Dawn.”

“The goals of these initial operations are essentially twofold: first, to prevent further attacks by regime forces on Libyan citizens and opposition groups, especially around Benghazi, and second, to degrade the regime’s capability to resist the no-fly zone we are implementing under that United Nations resolution,” Gortney said shortly after the attacks were launched.

Most of the targets were on or near the coast and around the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Gortney said. The coalition carefully picked the targets, he added, which either threatened coalition pilots or through use by the regime, posed a direct threat to the Libyan people of Libya.

“I want to stress that this is just the first phase of what will likely be a multiphase military operation designed to enforce the United Nations resolution,” the admiral said.

The international community gave Gadhafi the opportunity yesterday to pursue an immediate cease-fire, Obama noted. “But despite the hollow words of his government, he has ignored that opportunity,” he said. “His attacks on his own people have continued. His forces have been on the move. And the danger faced by the people of Libya has grown.”

Obama stressed that the United States is one nation involved in a multinational operation.

For now, Gortney told reporters, Operation Odyssey Dawn is under the command of Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III is the commander of Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn aboard the command ship USS Mount Whitney. Locklear commands U.S. naval forces in Europe and Africa, as well as NATO Allied Joint Forces Command.

“We anticipate the eventual transition of leadership to a coalition commander in the coming days,” Gortney said. Still, even with the transition, the U.S. military will continue to provide support, communications and logistics to coalition forces.

“Our mission now is to shape the battle space in such a way that our partners can take the lead in execution,” he said.

Forces will assess the results of the strikes in the coming hours, and that will shape operations for the future, Gortney said. This will take some time, he added, with Global Hawk unmanned aerial aircraft and national technical means providing the information needed.

New Nuclear Strategy: Focus on Non-proliferation, Narrows the Use of Nuclear Weapons

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:54:08 +0000

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discuss the new Nuclear Posture Review with reporters. (AP Photo

Obama Administration Revamps Nuclear Policy

Washington — The Obama administration issued a new U.S. nuclear strategy April 6 that sharply narrows the use of nuclear weapons, but maintains their traditional role to deter a nuclear strike against the United States.

The Nuclear Posture Review (PDF, 2.7MB) was unveiled at a Pentagon briefing by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The review of the nation’s nuclear policy is the first since 2001 and the third since the end of the Cold War two decades ago. A review of U.S. nuclear policy is conducted at the start of every new administration; it influences federal spending, treaties, weapon deployments and their eventual retirement over the next five to 10 years.

The new policy defines measures to strengthen the global nonproliferation regime, with emphasis on the importance of international treaties such as the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. And it specifically renews a U.S. commitment to hold accountable those who provide terrorists with nuclear weapons or the materials to make them.

“The NPR provides a road map for implementing President Obama’s agenda for reducing nuclear risks to the United States, our allies and partners and the international community,” Gates said at the Pentagon briefing. “This review describes how the United States will reduce the role and numbers of nuclear weapons with a long-term goal of a nuclear-free world.”

Clinton told reporters the review is a milestone in transforming U.S. nuclear forces and the way in which the nation approaches nuclear issues.

“We are recalibrating our priorities to prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, and we are reducing the role and number of weapons in our arsenal, while maintaining a safe, secure and effective deterrent to protect our nation, allies and partners,” she said.

Release of the strategy in Washington begins nine days of intensive nuclear diplomacy. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet in Prague April 8 to sign the new START treaty, designed to limit both nations’ nuclear arsenals to 1,550 warheads each, reduce deployed strategic delivery vehicles to 700, and limit deployed and nondeployed launchers to 800. Obama will host more than 40 world leaders at a nuclear security summit in Washington April 12–13 aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and related technology.

Following this series of events, representatives from around the world will converge on the United Nations in New York May 3–28 for debate and review of the NPT, in part to determine if it needs to be amended or expanded. The review process is held approximately every five years.

NPR: FIVE KEY OBJECTIVES

At the Pentagon briefing, Gates told reporters that the Nuclear Posture Review includes significant changes to the U.S. nuclear posture. It focuses on five key objectives.

• The policy emphasizes the prevention of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

• It reduces the role of nuclear weapons in American national security by committing the United States to not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that participate in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and are in compliance with its requirements. That policy includes instances of chemical and biological attack, but with some reservations.

• While the United States agrees to reduce its nuclear arsenal in a new treaty with Russia, the policy will maintain the traditional role of strategic deterrence and stability of the nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver them by long-range missiles, nuclear submarines and heavy bombers.

• NPR calls for a broadened regional security structure that includes missile defenses and improved conventional forces. The United States will retain the capability to forward-deploy U.S. nuclear weapons on fighter-bombers and heavy bombers.

• The policy requires the United States to sustain a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal as long as nuclear weapons exist. But the United States will not conduct new nuclear testing, and will not develop new nuclear warheads.

DISSUADING COUNTRIES FROM DEVELOPING WEAPONS

The Obama administration is encouraging global compliance with the NPT. Under the treaty, countries with nuclear weapons agree to move toward disarmament, while countries without nuclear weapons agree not to acquire them, and all have the right to peaceful nuclear energy.

According to the text of the Nuclear Posture Review, “the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear weapons states that are party to the NPT and in compliance with their nuclear nonproliferation obligations.”

Speaking at the Pentagon April 6, Jim Miller, the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, said the vast majority of countries are compliant with the NPT. If any should decide to use chemical or biological weapons (CBW) against the United States, its partners or its allies, they “face the prospect of a devastating conventional military response,” he said, rather than a nuclear attack. Miller said U.S. conventional forces and strike capabilities are developing additional capabilities to create greater deterrence for the use of CBW. However, he said the defense posture could be revised if the United States finds itself unable to cope with a growing threat from those weapons.

Miller said the Obama administration wants its defense posture to dissuade countries from developing nuclear weapons.

“If you are a country considering proliferation … you put yourself in a different category with respect to our nuclear capabilities,” he said. As the United States continues to develop its conventional and missile-defense capabilities to counter weapons of mass destruction, the hope is that “these states will see less and less of an advantage to going down that path.”

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Nuclear Posture Review Builds on Obama's Promise to Move Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:37:00 +0000

The Nuclear Posture Review, released April 6, 2010, is the first overarching look at U.S. nuclear strategy since the end of the Cold War. The review builds on President Barack Obama’s promise to take concrete steps toward the goal of achieving the safety and security of a world free of nuclear weapons.

The full text of the Nuclear Policy Review is now available on the Department of Defense Website.

A summary FACT SHEET is also available.

Defense Department Mobilizes to Save Lives and Ease Suffering in Haiti

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:51:43 +0000

Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff address the media at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Jan. 15, 2010. Gates and Mullen discussed the Haiti earthquake relief efforts. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/Released)

Gates, Mullen Cite Aid Streaming into Haiti

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2010 – All Defense Department resources in the Western Hemisphere are available for assisting Haiti, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today.

Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed reporters on the situation in Haiti.

Some 1,000 U.S. service members are on the ground in Haiti today, with more on the way. “The key is to get the food and the water in there as quickly as possible so that people don’t – in their desperation – turn to violence or lead to the security situation deteriorating,” the secretary said. “But at this point, other than some scavenging and minor looting, our understanding is the security situation is pretty good.”

This is a whole-of-government effort by the United States and also is an international effort, Gates said. U.S. soldiers and Marines will aid the 7,000-member United Nations force and about 2,000 police In providing security.

“We are clearly in a position to do more than others, partly by our proximity and partly by our capabilities,” Gates said. The key is coordinating the entire effort, he told reporters, and he said the coordination among the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Homeland Security Department, the Coast Guard and the Defense Department “has proceeded very well.”

By the end of the weekend, 9,000 to 10,000 American servicemembers will in Haiti or afloat offshore. Red Cross officials said the death toll from Jan. 12’s magnitude 7 earthquake could reach 50,000.

“Shortly after the devastating earthquake, [the Defense Department] mobilized to save lives and ease the suffering of the victims,” Gates said.

Army and naval forces, disaster-response teams, portable hospitals, K-9 search-and-rescue teams and relief and medical supplies are streaming in from many nations, Mullen said.

“In this situation, the military is best able to supply security, search-and-rescue capabilities, potable water and medical facilities,” the chairman said. The Navy’s USS Higgins has joined Coast Guard cutters off Haiti to provide support.

“This morning, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived outfitted with 19 helicopters, 51 hospital beds, three operating rooms, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day production capability and a significant capacity to deliver disaster-relief supplies,” Mullen said. “A company from the 82nd Airborne Division is on the ground to provide security and also distribution to meet those needs.” The rest of the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team will arrive over the weekend.

The USS Normandy and the USS Underwood also will arrive shortly, followed by the USS Bataan, USS Fort McHenry and USS Carter Hall carrying the Marines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The hospital ship USNS Comfort — with hundreds of medical personnel, medical capabilities and medical supplies — will arrive off the coast by the end of next week, Mullen said.

These ships, aircraft and troops “also deliver hope, although it seems that supplies and security cannot come quickly enough,” the chairman said.

Gates said he’s not worried that the aid effort will be seen as a threat or as a U.S. power grab. “Given the role that we will have in delivering food, water and medical help to people, my guess is the reaction will be one of relief at seeing Americans delivering this kind of help,” he said.

The United States also is only one of many countries sending aid and personnel to Haiti. Brazil, for example, has many personnel in Haiti and is sending a large amount of aid, he noted.