A panel discussion titled America Under Attack — Defending the Homeland was held during the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2022 Air, Space & Cyber Conference, at National Harbor, Maryland on September 21st.
     Navy Admiral Charles A. Richard is the commander to the U.S. Strategic Command. He joined the panel which was discussing important national security concerns. He said, “All of us in this room are back in the business of contemplating competition through crisis and possible direct armed conflict with a nuclear-capable peer. We have not had to do that in over 30 years. The implications of that are profound. They’re profound for homeland defense. They’re profound for strategic deterrence, as well as us achieving national objectives. And this is no longer theoretical.”
     Richard went on to say that every Defense Department plan and capability rests on an assumption that strategic deterrence, especially nuclear deterrence, is holding. If that assumption proves not to be true, nothing else in the department or joint force is going to work the way that it was designed to work. He added, “Russia and China can escalate to any level of violence that they choose in any domain with any instrument of power worldwide. We just haven’t faced competitors and opponents like that in a long time.”
       Richard pointed out that the Defense Department will have to change its approach to warfare. The slower, traditional approaches to escalation just don’t work anymore. In defending the homeland, combatants will need to be able to act quickly against an opponent in all combat domains. This includes land, sea, air, space and cyberspace theaters.
      The recent nuclear posture review for the U.S. lays out an excellent strategy according to Richard. The strategy endorses modernization of the nuclear triad and its command, control, and communication system. He said, “We need to execute this very good strategy as the threat from China continues to increase. We don’t know where that’s going to end, as the threat from Russia continues to increase, along with the other challenges that we face.”
     James H. Dickinson is the commander of U.S. Space Command. He also participated in the panel discussion. He emphasized the integrated deterrence that Richard covered. He noted that Spacecom uses the term to mean collaborating with allies, partners and industry. He went on to say that Spacecom’s assets are shared with Stratcom, Northcom and other combatant commanders. These assets include providing space domain awareness.
     Air Force General Glen D. VanHerck is the commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. He also participated in the panel discussion. He said that his first mission is to provide aerospace warning for threats to North American. When the North American Aerospace Defense Command went operational in 1958, its mission was much simpler. They only had to detect bombers or intercontinental ballistic missiles. Today, the aerospace warning challenge is significantly different and more difficult because of the deployment of cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems and hypersonic missiles that can evade radar detection.