Homeland defense commander stresses 'need to share' information

Officials at the newly established U.S. Northern Command may have to consider abandoning the military's traditional system for classifying information as they build crucial lines of communication with federal, state and local homeland security agencies, the Northern Command's chief information officer said recently.

Speaking to reporters at a homeland security summit late last month, Maj. Gen. Dale Meyerrose said inter-agency information sharing is a "blossoming requirement" for the Northern Command, which is headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. The command is charged with consolidating the military's homeland defense and civil-support missions.

The Defense Department's current classification system allows military offices to share information on a need-to-know basis, and requires security clearances and background checks for access to information with such labels as "top secret" and "classified." But Meyerrose said that system could hinder the Northern Command's ability to share real-time information with civilian agencies that classify their information differently.

"My mantra is that I need to change from a 'need to know' to a 'need to share' foundation," Meyerrose said. "That is fundamentally a different level of information-exchanging requirement."

Federal law generally prohibits direct military involvement in domestic law enforcement, but during terrorist attacks and other national emergencies that might exceed the capabilities of federal, state and local agencies, the Pentagon can assign the Northern Command to provide civil support.

Meyerrose noted that in order to provide that assistance, the Northern Command must be able to communicate quickly and efficiently with emergency management officials at all levels of government, using radios, computers and other technologies.

"I am not advocating that we undo the need to know [classification] associated with national security information, but my requirements are going to be driven by a need to share, not a need to know," he said. "But we're developing a lot of things, so we have not formally stated that requirement."

Meyerrose said the Northern Command also must build on existing information-sharing architectures, such as those that have allowed the Federal Aviation Administration to exchange data with the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

"We're trying to make sure we don't reinvent any of those wheels," Meyerrose said, adding that the Northern Command is interested in ideas from the private and academic sectors. "We have our catcher's mitt open. We're listening."

Lockheed Martin will play a key role in meeting the Northern Command's information technology requirements. The company recently won two contracts, totaling $5.8 million, to help the command integrate various systems and develop new information operations capabilities.

"We have begun work on the contracts, and we're looking forward to helping them with their IT and infrastructure," Lockheed spokesman Joe Wagovich said on Tuesday.