Work Observes Large-Scale Military Exercise at Fort Irwin

By Terri Moon Cronk

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Aug. 7, 2015 – The U.S. military faces multiple threats and it must be prepared for every contingency, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said Aug. 5, after viewing night operations as part of the Joint Forcible Entry large-scale exercise at Fort Irwin, California.

The two-day exercise at the National Training Center is one of the most challenging and complex missions in the Army, with 1,500 fighting forces from the Army’s Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command, XVIII Airborne Corps and the Air Force, according to Army officials.

“As all our senior leaders and [Defense Secretary Ash Carter] has said, the number of threats we face have multiplied and they’re all interconnected in different ways, and it requires a really strong military,” Work said.

DoD Focused on Five Threats

The deputy said Defense Department senior leadership is focused on what he called “five big threats.”

One is countering the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. “It’s a fight that’s going to hold on for a while, so it is a fight we have to get ready for and we do it every day,” Work said. “Then we look where potential contingencies are: Iran, North Korea, the South China Sea or China and Eastern Europe.”

Fort Irwin’s National Training Center hybrid warfare exercises reflect those concerns. “We have so many threats, the Army has to be prepared for every [contingency],” the deputy defense secretary said.

For that reason, the training center is reorienting its approach to exercises, Work said.

Training Meets Today’s Needs

The NTC has changed its focus from conventional warfare, Work said, to hybrid and counterinsurgency warfare.

With special operations forces integrated into the exercises, one group focuses on Europe, another on Africa, and one on the Far East, he explained.

Special operations forces are in good shape today with about 70,000 personnel and significant capabilities, Work added. Special operators, he said, were heavily employed during 13 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And as Afghanistan moves toward 2016, DoD hopes to “maintain a sustainable pace” of operations, Work said.

Army’s at the Right Strength

The deputy secretary defended criticism of the Army’s strength as being either too large or too small.

“The last two years, we’ve said an Army of 450,000 active, 335,000 National Guard and 195,000 in Army reserves [that] total 980,000 is the right Army,” Work said. “It’s an army we can afford and one we believe can be shaped to handle the full range of threats our nation faces.”

President Barack Obama has said, “‘We will protect any NATO ally,’” so the Army has to be prepared, the deputy secretary added.

But U.S. military strength is not just about numbers or equipment, Work said.

“What underlines our military is our people,” he said. “Our people are endlessly innovative themselves.”

Work, Kendall Visit Livermore Lab, Nuke Stockpile

By Terri Moon Cronk

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Aug. 6, 2015 – With responsibility for surety of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is a “national treasure,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said today.

Touring the lab for the first time since he took office as the DoD deputy secretary, Work said Livermore is one of three such treasures that work with the nation’s nuclear program -- in addition to Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories in Washington, D.C.

The deputy noted the words of President Barack Obama, who said the United States needs to have a safe, effective and reliable nuclear deterrent.

Livermore Central to Safe Stockpile

“Livermore is central to making sure that stockpile is safe and reliable,” Work told reporters on his return from a two-day trip to Northern California.

The California facility, he added, is “responsible for the surety of the weapons we have in our stockpile … they do tests, designs and are training the next generation of nuclear weapons specialists.”

Work added that the Department of Energy’s Livermore employees are “unbelievably talented.”

Work and Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, were briefed by the lab’s senior leaders and took a classified tour of Livermore’s key sectors of interest to DoD, including weapons and complex integration in the National Security Weapons Vault, the National Ignition Facility, home of the world’s largest laser.

Talks With Perry

Following the lab tour, Work and Kendall had a working lunch with former defense secretary William J. Perry, who served under President Bill Clinton’s administration from February 1994 to January 1997.

“Secretary Perry is an unbelievable font of knowledge,” Work said, adding that the 19th defense secretary was a key figure in DoD’s 1970s technology -- from working on the second offset strategy, development of the stealth bomber, bringing cruise missiles to the Navy, and introducing guided munitions to the Army.

“We asked him, ‘What do you think is going on in terms of technology, where do you see the third offset strategy going, what’s he worried about in [technology], what trends does he see?’” Work said of the discussions with Perry. “Just being able to sit down and talk with him … he’s just a great American.”

The visit to the Livermore lab visit and the nuclear stockpile comprised one segment of the California trip, Work said, which also centered on private industry and government dual-use innovation, in addition to observing a large-scale exercise at Fort Irwin, as the Army shifts its focus toward hybrid threats in warfare to counter a range of contingencies the military could face in the future.