Pentagon releases homeland defense strategy

The Defense Department has issued a 10-year homeland defense strategy, making it clear that the military will conduct active operations across the globe, in cyberspace, in space and, if necessary, within the United States.

"A new kind of enemy requires a new concept for defending the U.S. homeland," the Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support states. "The terrorist enemy now considers the U.S. homeland a pre-eminent part of the global theater of combat, and so must we."

The 40-page strategy outlines sweeping strategic goals and operational concepts under which the military will act in every domain across the globe: land, maritime, air, space and cyberspace. It calls for a combination of capabilities, including development of advanced information and communications technology, new generations of sensors, and nonlethal weapons.

"Multiple barriers to attack must be deployed across the globe-in the forward regions, in the approaches to the United States, in the U.S. homeland, and in the global commons-to create an unpredictable web of land, maritime and air assets that are arrayed to detect, deter and defeat hostile action," according to the strategy.

The strategy also states: "The employment of an active, layered defense across the globe is fundamental to achieving the Department of Defense's strategic goal for homeland defense."

The document makes it clear that the military is prepared to take action within the United States, when directed by the president or the Defense secretary and under the provisions of U.S. law.

"Although we must not dismiss traditional foreign military threats, in the period covered by this strategy, domestic employment of the U.S. military in a homeland defense role will likely come in response to transnational terrorist, rogue state, or other threats that exceed the capabilities of domestic counterterrorism and law enforcement authorities," the strategy states.

The five main objectives of the strategy are:

• Achieve maximum awareness of threats.
• Deter, intercept and defeat threats at a safe distance from the United States.
• Ensure that Defense components are protected and can perform their duties.
• Support domestic agencies in consequence management of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and electromagnetic attacks.
• Improve national and international capabilities for homeland defense and homeland security.