Partnering for Defense: Arctic Domain Awareness
By Ryan Burke & Kristen Heiserman
November 29, 2023
The Department of Defense needs help. The United States faces challenges in detecting and deterring all threats to the homeland. Addressing vulnerabilities, particularly in Arctic domain awareness, requires leveraging other government resources – not just defense capabilities – for enhanced data collection and information sharing toward improved national defense.
Interagency capabilities are force multipliers in homeland defense. For the preponderance of the 20th century, DoD maintained operational partnerships with non-defense agencies toward defense aims. While many persist, some have eroded in the 21st century – and need to be reinvigorated for better preparedness in peacetime and effectiveness in wartime. However, defense partnerships should not require the prospect of conflict to motivate action. Rather, partnerships are vital mechanisms for building cooperative designs during peacetime to leverage during wartime.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an intelligence collector at its core. From delivering lifesaving weather forecasts to ensuring uninterrupted commerce-critical port operations, NOAA's scientists, instruments, and assets are instrumental in information collection and dissemination. But unlike what many in DoD think, NOAA is not just ‘the weather people.’ NOAA brings scientists and operational experts in the air, land, space, and sea - making their environmental intelligence critical for enhancing DoD domain awareness, information dominance, and decision superiority.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/11/29/partnering_for_defense_arctic_domain_awareness_995461.html
