Navy EURAFSWA Installations to Participate in Reliant Defense 2012

By Lt. Timothy Hawkins, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia Public Affairs

NAPLES, Italy (NNS) -- Installations in Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia (EURAFSWA) will participate in Exercise Reliant Defense 2012 (RD-12) March 19-21.

RD-12 is one of several annual Navy security training exercises taking place worldwide. The exercise stresses areas of the Navy's anti-terrorism program to train Navy security forces and refine force protection responses to potential threats to installations and units.

"We're testing our ability to respond, coordinate, and manage events that affect base security, personnel, and other assets ashore," said Navy Region EURAFSWA Operations Officer Capt. Rodney DeWalt.

All six Navy installations throughout Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia will execute the exercise in collaboration with region headquarters in Naples, Italy.

"The focus is really at the installation level, the fundamental building block for Navy security ashore," said DeWalt.

Participants will include Navy Region EURAFSWA; Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples, Italy; Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy; NSA Bahrain; NSA Souda Bay, Greece; Naval Station Rota, Spain; and Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

"RD-12 is an excellent opportunity for all programs to practice teamwork for a coordinated response," said Tracey Murdock, the region's acting program director for training and readiness.

During the exercise, installation and Region personnel will rehearse reporting and tactical procedures. Personnel will practice relaying data to decision makers in order to improve coordination.

Local communities around the bases may be affected due to the exercise, but the Navy is committed to minimizing traffic congestion and any other problems that may result.

"The exercise focuses on force protection from which we all benefit," said Murdock. "Practicing communications and working through 'what if' scenarios to develop response plans help us fulfill our mission and keep our people safe."

Navy Region EURAFSWA delivers efficient and effective shore service support to U.S. and allied forces operating in the Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia area of responsibility.

Defense, State Agree to Pursue Conduct Code for Outer Space

By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2012 – The departments of Defense and State have agreed an international code of conduct should govern activities in outer space, and officials announced plans to work with the European Union to develop it.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little yesterday issued a statement saying DOD “supports the concept” of an international code of conduct for outer space activities.

“An international code of conduct can enhance U.S. national security by encouraging responsible space behavior by reducing the risk of mishaps, misperceptions and mistrust,” he said.

Little added that a European Union draft plan “is a promising basis for an international code.”

Little’s statement followed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s announcement yesterday that the United States has decided to join with the European Union and other nations to develop a code of conduct, which she said “will help maintain the long-term sustainability, safety, stability, and security of space by establishing guidelines for the responsible use of space.”

Clinton’s announcement came two days after a Russian spacecraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 700 miles west of Chile. The European Union issued its proposal about the same time as another space mishap – the February 2009 collision between a commercial satellite and that of a Russian military satellite, according to reports.

“The long-term sustainability of our space environment is at serious risk from space debris and irresponsible actors,” Clinton said. “Ensuring the stability, safety and security of our space systems is of vital interest to the United States and the global community. These systems allow the free flow of information across platforms that open up our global markets, enhance weather forecasting and environmental monitoring, and enable global navigation and transportation.

“Unless the international community addresses these challenges,” Clinton continued, “the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human space flight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.”

Opponents of the European Union plan have said it would restrict U.S. military options. But Clinton said yesterday that the U.S. government “has made clear to our partners that we will not enter into a code of conduct that in any way constrains our national security-related activities in space, or our ability to protect the United States and our allies.”

In early 2011, then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper approved a National Security Space Strategy designed to govern congestion and competition in space, as well as contested areas of space.

Army to Replace 2 Brigades in Europe With Rotating Units

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Jan. 12, 2012 – Ground forces will remain important to the U.S. defense strategy, but the employment of the forces will change, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.

In an interview on his way to Fort Bliss, Texas, Panetta said that the Army will withdraw two brigade combat teams from Europe, while retaining a strong presence in the region via rotational units.

The change is part of a new, 10-year defense strategy announced by President Barack Obama last week that emphasizes air-sea doctrine to better allow the United States to confront more than one threat at a time, Panetta said. Still, ground forces will remain important, and soldiers and Marines will continue to deploy to Afghanistan and be on the Korean Peninsula and partnering with nations around the globe.

“We will continue to maintain our presence both in the Middle East and Asia,” the secretary said. “Yes, we’ll have the Navy and the Air Force, but in my experience, in any conflict you need to have the potential use of ground forces.”

Panetta said he is excited about the prospect of using Army units on a rotational basis, just as Special Forces and the Marine Corps do. “Getting the Army to deploy to areas conducting exercises providing, most of all, a partnership with countries in Latin America, Africa, other countries where we can show the flag” is important, he said.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno is particularly excited about the ability to develop that rotational capability, Panetta said. “It will keep the ground forces very meaningful in the future,” he said.

As the Army replaces the two brigade combat teams with rotational units, the Europeans actually will see more U.S. forces because the American forces in Europe have more often than not been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, Panetta said.

DOD officials have spoken to European leaders about the withdrawal and they understand why the change will be good for the U.S. military and NATO allies, senior defense officials traveling with the secretary said.

The Eastern Dimension of America's New European Allies

Without a realistic prospect for NATO and EU accession, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Georgia will become sources of domestic and regional instability and objects of Russia’s neo-imperialist ambitions that will undermine American and European strategic interests. The new members of NATO and the EU have sought to develop credible policies for consolidating democratic reforms among their eastern neighbors, enhancing their prospects for inclusion in NATO and the EU, and containing a resurgent and assertive Russia. The new European democracies have also endeavored to more closely involve Washington in the process of Euro-Atlantic enlargement as a more effective Eastern Dimension jointly pursued by the U.S., NATO, and the EU would significantly consolidate trans-Atlantic security.

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Gates Considers Extending Brigades in Europe

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 30, 2007 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is leaning toward approving a proposal to temporarily hold two Army brigade combat teams in Europe rather than move them to the United States, a defense official said today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. European Command, has proposed a short-term solution that would keep a greater force presence in Europe to accomplish theater security engagement missions.

"It's not a request for an indefinite period," Whitman said.

Four brigades are currently based in Europe: 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, in Grafenwoehr, Germany; 173rd Airborne Brigade, in Vicenza, Italy; 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, in Baumholder, Germany; and 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Craddock's proposal would keep the two brigades due to rotate back to the United States in Germany for another year, Whitman said. This will enable Craddock to carry out EUCOM's theater engagement mission of military-to-military contacts among European nations and the U.S. military, U.S. Army Europe officials speaking on background said.

EUCOM officials have expressed concern that a reduction to two brigade combat teams would cut manpower on the continent to a point that the organization could not meet currently scheduled theater cooperation exercises.

Keeping the two brigades in place "would enable the U.S. military to continue engaging with the new democracies and our established allies in Europe," the official said.

Defense officials are looking at the proposal and working out issues that would be raised if the brigades remained in place. Among them are Base Realignment and Closure issues, building at stateside bases, and closing bases in Germany.

Unless Gates approves the extension, the brigades are due to rotate back to the United States in fiscal 2008 and 2009.