Terrorism, Weapons Top Threat List, Gates Says

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, March 21, 2011 – In a nation he spent much of his career studying and a city he last visited at the end of the Cold War, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates answered questions here today from Russian naval officers about the U.S. Defense Department, its problems and its future.

After delivering a speech at the new State Russian Naval Museum, Gates invited questions from his audience of mid-level officers from the Kuznetsov Naval Academy.

“The biggest threats we face are actually those where international cooperation is significantly required,” Gates said. “The first is terrorism, … and the other is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, particularly proliferation in states that have threatened to destroy other states.”

Terrorism sent the United States into Afghanistan and into a difficult fight with al-Qaida, he added.

Nuclear proliferation in Iran brought “all the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France -- together to try and bring pressure to bear” on that nation, he said.

“It is certainly my hope,” the secretary added, “that none of us ever have to use military force to deal with these proliferation problems, but rather that we can persuade these countries … to give up these weapons or weapons programs voluntarily.”

One of the biggest U.S. defense problems, Gates said, involves very expensive weapons systems ordered many years ago. Some have ended up costing much more than anticipated, and others “have proven not to be useful in the 21st century,” he told the Russian officers.

The secretary said he’s made progress on the problem, saving American taxpayers $300 billion or more as a result.

“But being able to be more selective about the weapons programs that we have,” he said, “making them relevant to [tomorrow’s] challenges and getting them delivered on time and as budgeted is a challenge that every military in the world faces in the 21st century.”

The world is not going to face the kinds of threats it experienced in the 20th century, the secretary said.

“We will face a range of potential conflicts that slides along a spectrum of lethality,” he explained. “We will confront nonstate actors that potentially have the capabilities of states, whether it’s in the cyber area or in the case of Hezbollah, which has tens of thousands of rockets and missiles -- more than most governments in the world.”

Perhaps the biggest national security and strategic challenge, Gates told the group, is preparing militaries for diverse threats and security challenges under limited budgets and getting the maximum possible flexibility for using those capabilities technologically and in terms of training.

Gates said the way weapons are procured is a major structural change needed in the U.S. military. Most services still buy their own weapons, he added, “but in fact a number of those capabilities can be shared among all of the services.”

“As we have learned to fight jointly and are structured jointly,” he added, “we need to learn how to buy weapons jointly.”

The secretary cited remotely piloted vehicles as an example, noting that each service has its own program for buying them. “And we think we could save a lot of money if they went together in these programs,” he said.

In a discussion of training and education for U.S. service members, Gates acknowledged repeated rotations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cut into full-spectrum training for the whole range of missions that each service is supposed to perform.

Turning to U.S.-Russian cooperation, Gates said he would like to see more effort put into an exchange program for Russian and U.S. military officers and noncommissioned officers.

“We would more than welcome exchanging students between our professional military training and education organizations and Russia’s,” Gates said. The effort would benefit both countries, he said, and he promised to raise the issue with Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov during a meeting tomorrow.

“It would do both of our militaries good to learn from one another and have the experience of spending time together,” he added, noting that the U.S. military services “would be very interested in this at every level, not just the most-senior officers but mid-grade officers and even noncommissioned officers.”

Gates: Common Challenges Deepen U.S.-Russian Ties

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, March 21, 2011 – Common security challenges, a deepening military-to-military relationship and the will to expand cooperation have drawn the United States and Russia together to face emerging issues of the 21st century, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.

Speaking at the new State Russian Naval Museum to mid-level naval officers from the Kuznetsov Naval Academy, Gates said the last time he visited St. Petersburg was as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1992.

“The broader purpose of my 1992 visit … was to explore with my Russian counterpart, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Evgeniy Primakov, opportunities for the American and Russian intelligence services to begin to work together,” Gates said.

At the time, he said, they addressed common threats in the post-Cold-War world, including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global organized crime, narcotics trafficking and others.

“No longer enemies,” the secretary said, “we began to look for ways in which we could cooperate and be partners.”

Gates noted that the Russian naval officers and their American counterparts “entered military institutions that were essentially shaped in response to each other.” Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, he said, U.S. and Russian defense organizations still are working to transform themselves to meet evolving threats and opportunities.

In the 21st century, the secretary said, militaries must be agile and adaptable enough to face threats that involve countering terrorism, fighting piracy and responding to natural disasters.

“They might be battling unpredictable insurgents in failing states as well as providing the defense training to help those states defend themselves,” Gates said. “They might be threats from a rogue nation or terrorists who do not attack though conventional channels or obey the laws of war or care about innocent lives, he said, such as those who recently struck at a Moscow airport.

The broadening spectrum of conflict, Gates added, means military leaders must think harder about the range of missions they will be called on to perform and how to balance capabilities.

“I have pushed all of our military services to institutionalize the asymmetric and unconventional warfare capabilities developed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. The Russian military has had to adapt to similar external threats and internal adjustments, he added.

Gates noted that he and Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov have had a number of conversations commiserating on the challenges of running large, proud and tradition-bound military institutions. Both, he said, strive to “invest limited funds wisely on truly critical capabilities while doing right by our troops and their families.” These and other evolving 21st century challenges, the secretary said, have created new opportunities for cooperation.

Together, he said, the United States and Russia have coordinated and expanded operation of the northern distribution network into Afghanistan, and Russia has offered aid to the Afghan government in developing its helicopter fleet.

The United States and Russia also have worked together through negotiations and sanctions to persuade the Iranian regime to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Russia also restricted arms sales to Iran and backed the United Nations’ expanded efforts toward that nation.

Both nations also ratified the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, Gates said, “a continuation and expansion of arms-control efforts we worked toward even during the darkest days of the Cold War.”

The two militaries always have learned from each other, Gates said, even in less cooperative times.

Today, the secretary said, the militaries exchange best practices and strategies for training, educating and caring for troops; defense technologies such as ways to counter homemade bombs; logistics, such as efforts along the northern distribution network; and maritime cooperation, including counterpiracy efforts.

Even so, Gates said, Russia and the United States won’t always agree. For example, he noted, “Russia still has uncertainties about the European Phased Adaptive Approach, a limited [missile defense] system that poses no challenge to the large Russian nuclear arsenal.”

But the nations have mutually committed to resolving these difficulties to develop a roadmap toward effective anti-ballistic missile collaboration, Gates said.

Collaboration may include exchanging launch information, setting up a joint data fusion center, allowing greater transparency in missile defense plans and exercises, and conducting a joint analysis to determine areas of future cooperation, the secretary said.

Gates told the Russian officers how the U.S. military has gained valuable expertise by operating with international partners ranging “from the Balkans in the 1990s, where the U.S. military worked with Russian forces, to the international military effort in Libya today.”

Despite his work with Serdyukov, Gates said, future progress is not up to the current defense leaders alone.

“It will be up to you, the next generation of leaders,” the secretary said, “to make what you will of our efforts and decide what history you’ll be telling when it’s your turn to stand up here.”