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AFA Air, Space, Cyber Conference, September 17

Below are today’s notes from the 6 panels from Day 2 of AFA Air, Space, Cyber Conference, September 17.
 
The panels discussed include: 
 
-Keynote Address: State of the Space Force with Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations
**Attached is the transcript 
Key Takeaway: Gen Chance Saltzman provided an overview on how the Space Force is reoptimizing for Great Power Competition which includes transforming force design, force development, force generation, and force employment. Gen Saltzman explained that the service is overhauling these elements to align the service’s form with its function. Some initiatives he listed under these efforts include SPAFORGEN, a new Officer Training Course and similar efforts for both enlisted and civilians, and the Personnel Management Act.
 
-Keynote Address: Enlisted Space Force with Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna
Key Takeaway: CMSgt John Bentivegna gave key initiatives needed for reoptimizing for GPC. Those initiatives fall under the elements of quality of life & service, elevating the guardian journey, cultivating the warfighter, and creating the future. 
 
-The Dangers We Face with Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, & Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost.
Key Takeaway: Gen Stephen Whiting, Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, Gen. Gregory Guillot, and Gen. Timothy Haugh discussed the threats in their AORs and the opportunities and challenges with both space and cyber. 
 
-Keynote Address: Preparing & Prevailing in the Indo-Pacific with Gen. Kevin B. Schneider
Key Takeaway: Persistent threats from China and North Korea continue to challenge global stability, with China’s aggressive actions escalating regional tensions. In response, the U.S. and its allies have opportunities to strengthen partnerships, relying on strategic advantages like a strong alliance network, skilled personnel, and joint force strength. 
 
-Standing Up the New Commands with Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, Lt. Gen. David Harris, & Lt. Gen. Dale White
Key Takeaway: The U.S. Air and Space Forces are undergoing rapid modernization by establishing new commands like Integrated Capabilities Command (ICC) and Airmen Development Command (ADC) to unify training, acquisition, and industry collaboration. This effort focuses on accelerating the development of capabilities to outpace adversaries like China and Russia, while also strengthening international partnerships to create a more integrated and effective joint warfighting force in space operations.
 
-Deterring Russia in the Arctic with Gen. James B. Hecker, Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham, Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman, Major General Øivind Gunnerud. 
Key Takeaway: NATO’s Expanded Presence Enhances Arctic Deterrence: The integration of Sweden and Finland into NATO, combined with increased domain awareness and innovative ISR capabilities, significantly strengthens the alliance’s ability to deter Russia’s growing military presence in the Arctic while addressing new challenges from Russian-Chinese cooperation.
 
Tuesday, 17 September 2024
 
Keynote Address: Enlisted Space Force with Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna, USSF
 Key Initiatives
-These are informed and driven by the need to optimize for great power competition, and they’re inspired by you, the guardians.
Quality of Life & Service
-This is critical and vital to mission readiness.
-We’re inspired by the passion of men and women and we want to provide essential benefits to all of you.
-We’re going to continue to foster communities. We’re looking for communities that are welcoming and supportive of the service members and their families.
-I’m proud of the guardian voice. As we work through development, the guardian voice is essential for that process.
Elevate the Journey
-We’re excited about the Personnel Management Act. It’s a new model that inspires guardians to stay with us for the long haul.
-I will continue to work across the DOD, work with Congress, and leverage the authorities we already have to improve the journey and needs of our people.
Cultivate the Warfighter
-The threat is real and we are living in a complex world that is dangerous.
-We need warfighters to get after the mission the nation has given us. We need warfighters who can develop concepts, work on analysis, and develop doctrine.  Every single guardian has to have a warfighting mindset thinking about and understanding what the threat is.
-We need to cultivate the warfighter mentality and I’m focused on this. I want guardians to understand why they do what they do.  We’re changing our education and training because we have to inspire.
Create the Future
-It’s vitally important that we look ahead and make the investments today for the guardians of the future.
-Space battle management as orbital warfare gets more complex, how do we plan for that for the future? We need to make the right decisions today to drive the future. We have to tell the story today so the nation understands what it means to be a guardian. Tell your story and brag about you.
-We’ll continue to strengthen relationships with our allies. Nations are eager to learn about guardians. How can we create more opportunities with guardians so that we can build on relationships?
-What is our identity and culture? We have to make sure we’re setting the conditions to allow guardians to find their identity and understand what it means to be a guardian.
 Guardian Experience
-It’s the guardian experience that will keep guardians on the team. It’s on us to make sure the experience is meaningful.
-I see my role as not limited to stripes. When I talk about the guardian experience, I’m talking to guardians wearing bars, stripes, and suits.
USSF & USAF
-One team, one fight, every day we’re leveraging and relying on the Air Force. Recruiting, today we’re leveraging airmen recruiting services. We’ve exceeded our goal.
-We’re leveraging the infrastructure from the AF for guardian initial experience. It allows for a safe space to build guardians. The guardian experience is a top off.
-We have got to work out a design and our own training for the future.
-Thank you to the leadership in USAF that are helping and providing leadership and allowing us to build an environment within your ecosystem. Help us stand on our own two feet. There are things as a service we need to do on our own.
New Structure for Enlisted Development
-What we were is not what we must become. We have to shift the way we think about this.
-Scouting, we need to scout for talent. It’s a different philosophy and a service responsibility. We have the ability to focus on the actual talent in a deliberate manner.
-Individualized and purposeful development, I’d like to modernize and expand E1-E4 leveraging our scouting for specific talent to more align career advancement. These are not easy courses.
-Talent utilization and functional mastery, let’s closely align career advancement to the skills and certifications that you have.
-Operationally relevant and principal advisors, what are the needs of the warfighter that’s being asked by the Space Force? Need to stay operationally relevant in order to advise.
-This all leads to being a guardian for life. How do we create an experience that allows guardians to stay connected to the Space Force as they go off and start businesses, go into government?
Moving Forward
-My vision is going to be a journey. Every day is a step closer to the vision we all need and want for the growth of the future. I will work across DOD to implement this. I don’t have a lot of authority but I have a lot of influence and I’m going to make this vision a reality.
Space Force 101
[End]


The Dangers We Face
Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, Commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command
Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, Commander, U.S. Cyber Command
Gen Stephen N. Whiting, Commander, U.S. Space Command
Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, Commander of U.S. Transportation Command
Moderator: Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.), Dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
Top Threats in Each Command
Guillot
-It’s not a single threat like we’ve had in the past. What we face today is a variety of threats from all domains. 
-We need to not only defend critical infrastructure, but we also need to protect the other spaces. 
-Most present and persistent threat we face day to day is the cyber threat and the fastest growing threat we see is the space threat.
Van Ovost
-Cyber vulnerability, 85% of what we do uses commercial. We’re also worried about corrosion. We also see a lot of smart tech from China which can unmask military movements. Also, the long range threat specifically designed to touch us.
Haugh
-PRC, we have done extensive reporting at an unclassified level to explain what kind of threats they bring. We can to expose them. They’re targeting IP, critical infrastructure. We’re countering this through partnerships.
Whiting
-Two buckets, first is the rapid pace of counter space weapons we see from China and Russia and it’s the whole gamut, jammers, cyber, co-orbital ASATs. Second, it’s that the PRC has gone to space for the same advantages that we have and they want to give themselves the ability to operate at global scales. 
Space & Cyber Relationship & Challenges to the Infrastructure
Haugh
-Unity of effort matters. How do we bring a unified approach to bring all the capabilities we have to ensure command and control? We also owe multi domain options. We need to provide different options in a crisis. 
Whiting
-Cyber enables the entire space enterprise. We’ve got to defend the novel cyber domain. 
-I still don’t think we have a common risk lexicon for talking about cyber. Where should we accept risk? Where should we not? Where should we invest more? There’s more work to be done.
Adapting to Northern Challenges
Guillot
-The arctic is extremely important now. It’s becoming more strategic each day.
-China has declared itself a near arctic nation and they spend a lot of time up there. They were just there with a bomber with the Russians. It was coordinated but it shows on a daily basis that the arctic is an area where a number of nations are showing interest. It takes up 52% of our AOR.
-We’re trying to increase the number of exercises being done there. We’re working closely with the services to identify specific units that are trained and equipped for the area.
Over Horizon Radar & Gap Fillers
Guillot
-We need a layered approach from space down to air, surface, subsurface. Having a gap filler LIKE UAVs to help with flexibility and agility, being able to move quickly… I’m very intrigued by CENTCOM and what they’re doing with UAVs… This is something we could look at. 
  
Improving Survivability & Capacity
Van Ovost
-We have to be able to protect and sustain the force. To do that we have to have credible capacity with actual capacity, readiness, and capability to operate under all domain persistent threat. 
-We need battlespace awareness, secure communications, and data. It’s out there and we’ve seen it. We’ve got to scale and get things out of prototype. 
-We have to scale 10-12x. We need to include commercial and our allies and partners. 
Increasing Situational Awareness for Aircraft
Van Ovost
-Without understanding maneuver for both blue and red force, it’s hard to make decisions at echelon. 
  
AI Enablers in Cyber Security & Responding to AI Enabled Cyber Attacks
Haugh
-The environment is really whoever moves with the most agility will be the most effective. The fast eats the slow.
-We are working with CIO to produce a five-year AI roadmap which we’ve done and out briefed. 
-We’ve made a lead for AI so we can align operational requirements with the force to rapidly adopt AI technologies. 
-We are prioritizing partnering with industry. We have an AI Security Center. We will partner closely and provide value. 
  
Congressional Concern of Space Vulnerabilities/ Russia Nuclear Sat
Whiting 
-It’s very concerning. It’s a violation of the Outer Space Treaty. This has been an expectation for decades. Russia knows better.
-This is indiscriminate so it will affect satellites from all nations and commercial. Nobody should accept this. 
-If we see a future where mankind is going to Mars, the moon, asteroids, we should not accept a world where nuclear weapons are on orbit. 
Strengthening Partnerships
Van Ovost
-We have really close relationships with industry. We work very closely with Cyber Command. We’re helping companies with protecting their data. It’s an evolving threat so we’re working to ensure our commercial partners understand the threat and are reacting. 
Haugh
-We’re a unique warfighting domain. Industry is at the center. We’re working to get authorities and it’s been an enormous enabler. From NSA standpoint, we have over 1200 partnerships with industry. We have day to day relationships. We need to share information and provide services that can make our industrial base more secure. 
Whiting
-Partnerships are absolutely vital. It’s a team sport in space. Nobody can do all that needs to be done in space so we have to work together.
-Joint Integrated Space team, we’re doing this now. 
-Interagency partners, NRO, and IC, we plan and do operations together.
-Commercial, it’s about sharing threat information. 
-International partners, we are onboarding more. Operational Olympic Defender, we do this at the highest classification levels. New Zealand is joining. There’s a commitment between like minded countries to act together in space.
Russia/Ukraine Lessons Learned
Guillot
-First big lesson is partners are the difference. We have strong partnerships and we don’t just coordinate, we can actually integrate. 
-The rise of CJADC2 and live layers of information all tied into our figure tips and shared globally, that’s a big lesson.
-Counter UAS, rapidly growing threat we’re seeing.
-Russia will target and has targeted critical infrastructure and has also gone after nonmilitary targets. We think about this most and how it could apply to our homeland.
Van Ovost
-Logistics are under attack. Making sure that we’re ready to operate in that condition and for a long time, we have to do this under all domain threats.
-Ukraine, it’s a whole of nation effort to kick Russia out. Russia is not using a whole of nation effort.
-China is by design a whole of nation effort and we should think accordingly.
Haugh
-Choices Ukraine made to become more resilient in data, if they hadn’t done that Russia would have been much more successful in cyber.
-We need more resilience in ensuring the right data and compute is available at echelon. 
-How do we talk to our partners? Ensuring we have secure comms that are resilient and modern, we have to make sure that’s ready for whatever scenario.
Whiting
-Cyber, it’s cheaper and faster for Russia and China to attack through cyber. 
-Commercial space, it’s incredible the amount of capability they have on orbit and they can overcome classification.
-You do not want to be a military that’s not space enabled on a modern battlefield. You want your forces to have all the advantages from space. 
[End]


Preparing & Prevailing in the Indo-Pacific
Speakers: 
Introduction: Maj Gen Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.)
Key Speaker: Gen Kevin Schneider, Commander, Pacific Air Forces; and Air Component Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii
 
Importance of Alliances and Partnerships:
 “We have three asymmetric advantages… the growing network of alliances and partnerships… the professionalism and the discipline and the strength of our people… the inherent strength of the joint force.”
“I am having conversations with counterparts in the region that my predecessors were not able to have. There is a clear eyed recognition of the dangers posed by the regime in Beijing. It’s allowed us to increase the collaboration amongst allies and partners. It has allowed us to be in more places that along with the inherent strength and the readiness of the US Joint Force, brings together a sharpened blade of warfighting readiness across the spectrum.”
China’s Aggressive and Coercive Behavior:
“We’ve seen the growth of the People’s Liberation Army, the advancing of their arsenal. But more troubling than that, it’s the behaviors that go along with that, the illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive behaviors.”
Military Readiness and Collaboration:
 “We are interchangeable, interoperable and able to do things together, not only as a joint force but as a partnership, a group of allies and partners.”
 Agile Combat Employment (ACE):
 “We train to work as small and agile teams. We put a lot of trust in our young officers and certainly our NCO Corps to get the mission done.”
The Backbone of the Joint Force – NCO Corps:
 “We trust our airmen. We trust them to do their job, and to do it well. I do not see that reflected in the NCO Corps of our potential adversaries.”
Constant Refinement and Learning from Exercises:
“We practice so that we never get it wrong. These rehearsals are just the beginning of how we deter, fight, and prevail in the Pacific.”
“These rehearsals, these innovative schemes of maneuver, are just the beginning of how we deter, how we fight and how we prevail in the Pacific.”
Challenging the Status Quo:
“We cannot accept the status quo. I want to continue to stress and test agile combat employment, our ability to command and control, our ability to execute contested logistics, to do dynamic force movements around the theater, and to continue to stay on the cutting edge.”
Commitment to Readiness in the Indo-Pacific:
 “America’s day both starts and ends in the Indo-Pacific, your airmen are absolutely prepared, 24/7, 365 days, to defend, deter, and prevail.”
Collaboration and Call to Action:
 “This is my call to action… bring your training concepts, groundbreaking R&D, and asymmetric
warfighting capabilities to PACAF.”
 
[End]
 
Standing Up the New Commands
— Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships, USSF
— Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, Commander, Air Education and Training Command
— Lt. Gen. David Harris, Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force Futures
— Lt. Gen. Dale White, Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
 
Moderator: Lt. Gen. Burt Field
 
Air Marshall Paul Godfrey
 On Innovation and Integration of Allied Capabilities
“It becomes the front door for allies and partners to understand where they can contribute and where we can build an objective force.”
 
“For what is ultimately a relatively small personnel bill… I think it’s going to add significant value to not only Space Force but also allies and partners.”
 
“How the various futures commands work together to enable the joint force is the primary thing here.”
 
“We need to integrate partners and allies to task organize… we understand we’re addressing the same threat.”
 
“The Schriever wargame next year will involve 10 nations, all part of the Combined Space Operations Forum. This is an important step in integrating allied capabilities into future space operations.”
 
“We’ve already integrated many elements of Space Command with our allies, but this new command will take it to another level in terms of partnership and joint capabilities.”
 
“Empower the people – that is where we are going to win.”
 
On Command Evolution and Institutional Reform
“Space Futures Command will be the Space Force’s fourth field command… standing up two new centers: a new Concepts and Technology Center and a new Wargaming Center.”
 
“We’re building the plane as we fly it… the priority will be developing the process and system while still maintaining outputs from the other field commands.”
 
On Technological and Warfighter Integration
“Space refueling as an example… concepts and technology centers will test this idea, and if feasible, move it into the space warfighting center for further development.”
 
“The UK Space Command’s experience taught us how challenging standing up a new command can be, and we have to prioritize key relationships across the space enterprise.”
 
On Challenges in Standing Up New Commands
“One of the biggest challenges of standing up a new command is that it’s going to be harder than you think it is. You can stand up an organization, but it may not be what you want for several years.”
 
“We need to work on a ‘good enough’ principle rather than trying to build this like a Swiss watch. It will evolve over time with innovations and lessons learned.”
 
“There is a task force tackling this. Not too many people are required, the SWAC is already there, and warfighting at the wargaming center is there at Del 10 already. All in all, it will be about 600 personnel, 200 / 200 / 200 or about 100 in the warfighting area.”
 
“The complexity of the space enterprise in the US is enormous… the challenge will be aligning all the different moving parts like SSC, NRO, and AFRL.”
 
Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson
On the Urgency and Readiness for Great Power Competition
“For great power competition, China and Russia have spent decades studying us while building and modernizing their military capabilities designed to defeat the US in conflict.”
 
“We are the world’s best military because of our airmen and guardians… but we are out of time and must modernize our force design for future battlespaces.”
 
On Command Evolution and Institutional Reform
“Airmen Development Command will take a mission-over-function approach to training airmen… to better prepare us for future operating concepts.”
 
“The changes we’re making with AETC will allow us to pivot requirements and train forces much more quickly to be fast, flat, and relevant.”
 
On Training and Force Development
“We have to give our airmen and guardians the right set of competencies to prosecute that fight with their new capabilities.”
 
“We’re constantly training as an Air Force… our charge is to get those skills and competencies ingrained in our folks as early as possible.”
 
“The training enterprise is going to be key. We don’t want capability to outpace training.”
 
“Making changes to the training curriculum in 9 months compared to years is unacceptable. We need to be faster.”
 
On Warfighter Integration
“One of the most important shifts we’re making is integrating our warfighters with acquisition and industry to rapidly develop and field new capabilities.”
 
“The CCA program is an example of how we’re integrating capabilities across acquisition and warfighter domains to accelerate delivery to the field.”
 
Lt. Gen. David Harris
On Urgency and Readiness for Great Power Competition
“We need a detailed understanding of the threat, knowing that it drives a sense of urgency. Our Chief and Secretary have said we’re out of time.”
 
On Command Evolution and Institutional Reform
“We’re linking Integrated Capabilities Command and the Integrated Development Office to ensure warfighters and acquisition teams work together to address threats.”
 
“The force design process is critical to understanding what we need to provide to the joint fight in the future.”
 
On  Integration of Acquisition and Force Development
“We are bringing operators, engineers, and acquirers together to ensure that we are solving the right problems with the right solutions in a timely manner.”
 
“The connection between Integrated Capabilities Command and the Integrated Development Office is a critical piece to speeding up acquisition cycles and making us more agile.”
 
On Future Force Design and Joint Fight Readiness
“We have to make sure we’re setting the right conditions for our future force… it’s not just about force structure but also about how we set our forces up for the future joint fight.”
 
 “Mission threads and mission engineering threads help us map out exactly what capabilities we need to develop and how they fit into the joint force, something we’ve missed in the past.”
 
Lt. Gen. Dale White
On Urgency and Readiness for Great Power Competition
“We understand the threat, and we need to be able to task organize urgently to address that threat.”
 
“A war with a peer rival is not inevitable, but we have a responsibility to be ready.”
 
On Command Evolution and Institutional Reform
“ICC aims to unify the services’ future requirements and acquisition processes to keep pace with technology and changes to the threat environment.”
 
“Secretary Kendall saw the success of warfighter integration in programs like the B-21 and wanted to scale that effort through the ICC and IDEO.”
 
On Technological and Warfighter Integration
“Capability development is clearly a warfighting function. We have to embrace that and operate that way.”
 
“If we do have to fight, it’s going to be a technologically-based war, and we need to be ready for that reality.”
 
On Industry Collaboration and Technological Development
“The trinity of industry, operator, and acquisition is critical to developing the capabilities we need for future conflicts.”
 
“Our warfighter integration efforts have shown that industry plays a key role in solving operational challenges. We need to continue bringing them in early to accelerate development.”
 
On Adaptability and Continuous Feedback in Command Functions
“We have to make sure we listen to our airmen throughout this process because we’re not going to get everything right on the first try. Continuous feedback and agility are key.”
 
“Our integration efforts aren’t just about paperwork or org charts. This is about fundamentally changing how we organize for warfighting outcomes and driving change at a pace we’re not used to.”
 
On Balancing Capability and Training
“We need to make sure that training keeps up with the rapid pace of capability development, so our forces are fully prepared to use the new technologies we’re developing.”
 
“It’s not just about developing the technology—if we don’t have the training in place to match, then we risk having capabilities that outpace our ability to effectively use them.”
 
[End]


Deterring Russia in the Arctic
— Gen. James Hecker, Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe
— Lt. Gen. Cunningham, Commander, Alaskan Command, U.S. Northern Command
— Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman, Air Chief of the Swedish Air Force
— Major General Gunnerud, Chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force
 
Moderator: Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem, USAF (Ret.), Director of Research at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
 
Gen. James Hecker
On Russia’s military build-up and increased domain awareness in the Arctic.
“Russia has 55 icebreakers, 37 surface vessels, and 8 nuclear submarines.”
 
“They’re increasing their domain awareness by adding radars and satellites.”
 
“Since the war started, we went from six NATO nations spending 2% of their GDP to 23 nations.”
 
On Innovative solutions for domain awareness.
“We’ve been experimenting with MQ-9s, Global Hawk, and high-altitude balloons to extend ISR capabilities in the Arctic.”
 
“We need to explore cheap, innovative solutions like the acoustic sensors used in Ukraine to detect low-altitude threats.”
 
On the importance of NATO’s expansion with Sweden and Finland.
“On February 24, 2022, we had 30 NATO nations. Now we have 32, including Finland and Sweden.”
 
“Both of them bring an experience in Arctic operations that the rest of NATO can learn from.”
 
On Increased NATO capabilities in Europe.
“Several nations have decided to buy F-35s, which will bring us to a total of 700 F-35s in Europe by 2032.”
 
“We’re learning from Finland and Norway’s operations with F-35s, including landing on highways.”
 
Lt. Gen. Cunningham
On the strategic significance of the Arctic as an avenue for Russian and Chinese cooperation.
“The Bering Strait becomes more strategic as the Northern Sea Route opens up with the melting ice.”
 
“Russia’s cooperation with China, including joint bomber patrols, is concerning.”
 
On Challenges of Arctic operations.
“The Arctic is 1.5 times the size of the United States, making domain awareness and operations incredibly challenging.”
 
“Operating in the Arctic involves unique challenges like extreme cold and negative 20-degree temperatures during winter.”
 
On Arctic domain awareness and information sharing.
“Domain awareness is critical in the Arctic, especially given the vast geography, and information sharing between NATO allies is key.”
 
“Some innovations, like real-time information in our KC-135 tankers, are helping us close the domain awareness gap.”
 
On U.S. as an Arctic nation.
“The top third of Alaska is above the Arctic Circle, making the U.S. an Arctic nation with significant interests in the region.”
 
“The Northern Sea Route, which crosses the top of Russia, is becoming more active, making the region even more strategic.”
 
Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman
On Sweden’s integration into NATO and interoperability.
“Being a NATO member allows Sweden to combine our forces with the F-35 and other NATO capabilities.”
 
“Interoperability has been our strategy for a long time, and now with NATO, we can remove the last hurdles.”
 
On Strategic importance of the Nordic region.
“Sweden’s geography, combined with Finland and Norway, changes the map for NATO in the Arctic, providing more strategic depth.”
 
On the long-term focus on Arctic defense by Russia.
“Russia has never left the Arctic; they’ve always prioritized the region and invested in both civil and military infrastructure there.”
 
On Cross-border training and exercises in the Nordic region.
“We’ve been doing cross-border training between Norway, Sweden, and Finland since 2008, where we train together in the airspace and land at our bases.”
 
“The size of the airspace in Northern Europe is massive, comparable to five times the Barry Goldwater training area in Arizona.”
 
Major General Gunnerud
On Russia’s testing of new military systems in the Arctic.
“The Arctic region is the biggest arena for testing new systems in Russia, and we try to keep track of it.”
 
“We see Russia investing heavily in military infrastructure close to Norway, at the Kola Peninsula and Franz Josef Land.”
 
On the importance of showing force to deter Russia.
“By showing force through exercises, we send a message of deterrence, which is something Russia understands.”
 
On Electronic warfare and jamming by Russia.
“We’ve seen GPS jamming in Northern Norway, affecting both military and civilian airports.”
 
“These kinds of electronic warfare activities are a sign of Russia’s strategic investment in the Arctic.”
 
On the role of Nordic countries in NATO’s Arctic strategy.
“The Nordic countries form a kind of peninsula in the Arctic, and with Sweden and Finland joining NATO, we have a unified airspace over Northern Europe.”
 
“We’re intercepting Russian aircraft once or twice a week, showing the constant presence of their forces in the Arctic.”
 
[End]
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