Megan Eckstein
ABOARD AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP KEARSARGE, IN NORFOLK, Va. – NATO and U.S. military leaders celebrated the full standup of Joint Force Command Norfolk on July 15, marking the full readiness of the first NATO operational headquarters in North America that will be responsible for the Atlantic and Arctic regions.
NATO has two other joint force commands – one in Brunssum, the Netherlands, in the “heart of Europe,” and a second in Naples, Italy, in the Mediterranean region, U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis said at the ceremony today aboard American amphibious warship Kearsarge. Lewis leads U.S. 2nd Fleet and JFC Norfolk – both of which were stood up in recent years in response to increased Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic, increased military and commercial traffic in the Arctic and other factors that have generated a renewed interest in securing the Atlantic Ocean.
Setting up a third JFC in Virginia “creates a link between North America and Europe and helps to further develop the desired 360-degree approach for our collective defense and security. Joint Force Command Norfolk is the first operational level NATO headquarters in North America and is the Atlantic advocate within the alliance, enhancing NATO’s readiness and responsiveness,” Lewis said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley spoke at the event and somberly described the effects of great power competition in the past – in World Wars I and II – and said NATO and JFC Norfolk would be responsible for ensuring that never happens again.
“It’s the mission of this command to fight the Battle of the Atlantic in the event of armed conflict,” Milley said in a 20-minute address at the ceremony. Lewis and his successors at JFC Norfolk “will be the admirals in charge of a Battle for the Atlantic. … I would tell you that the survival of NATO, the success or failure in combat in a future war in Europe, would largely depend on the success or failure of this command.”
Milley is well-versed in the toll great power competition has taken in the past – in no small part because his father served as a Navy corpsman alongside the Marines that landed on Iwo Jima – and Milley made clear in his speech that the U.S. and NATO need to take actions now to avoid that kind of war from ever happening again.
“In my view, the world is entering a period of potential instability, as some nations – not all, but some – and clearly terrorist groups and perhaps some rogue actors are seeking to undermine and challenge the existing international order. And they seek to weaken the system of cooperation and collective security that has been in existence for some time. The dynamic nature of today’s current environment is counterbalanced by an order that was put in place 76 years ago at the end of World War II. … It was the bloodiest war in human history – there were almost 7,000 Marines killed in action, 21,000 Japanese killed in action on the island of Iwo Jima where my dad landed, and that was only in 19 days. In the short period of 31 years, from 1914 to 1945, World Wars I and II were fought among the great powers of the day, and 150 million people – 150 million around the world – were killed in the conduct of great power war.”
Milley spoke of some of the low points of the wars – a six-week period in the fall of 1918 when American expeditionary forces fought in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne and saw 26,000 Marines and soldiers killed; an eight week period in the summer of 1944 when 425,000 soldiers on both sides of the war were wounded or killed from the beaches of Normandy inland to Paris, including 37,000 allied warfighters killed in those weeks alone.
“That is the butcher’s bill of great power war. That’s what this international order that’s been in existence for seven and a half decades is designed to prevent. That’s what JFC Norfolk is all about, is to prevent that outcome.”
In addition to the potential instability, Milley said “we are experiencing a change, a significant change, in the character of war: … how we fight, the organizations we fight with, the technology that we use.”
Milley said a great shift in the character of war occurred between World Wars I and II, when tanks, aircraft and radios proliferated. All the nations of Europe had access to them and incorporated them into their tactics and training and warfighting culture – but Nazi Germany did so so much more effectively than other countries that it overran Western Europe in a mere 18 months.
“The same thing is happening right this minute as we speak, as we sit here on the Kearsarge. There’s a whole set of technologies that are driving fundamental change, and if we the United States military, and if we NATO as an alliance do not adapt and adopt these technologies, if we do not get there ‘firstest with the mostest’ and we don’t put the pedal to the metal and do this right over the next 10 or 15 years, we are condemning a future generation to what happened 76 years ago.”
The general spoke of capabilities being used today – precision munitions combined with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems that allow for hitting targets at ranges never previously thought possible; artificial intelligence altering the speed of decision-making; manned-unmanned teaming – plus things coming down the line such as biotechnology, human engineering, miniaturization and more that will have “a fundamental impact on the conduct of war.”
“The country that masters those technologies, combines them with their doctrine, develops their leadership to take maximum advantage of them, is likely going to have significant and perhaps even decisive advantage at the beginning of the next war – and in fact, that may be as long as the war lasts. So mastering the change in the character of war is most likely going to be the most important thing we do as a professional military over the next 10 to 15 years,” Milley warned.
In a nod to the ongoing debate within the U.S. military and Congress on how to prioritize spending, Milley said current readiness and modernization for the future are both important, but that adversaries should be warned that current warfighting capabilities are strong in the U.S. and NATO.
“The challenge is going to be in the future, in the not-too-distant future, and that’s where our focus needs to be,” the chairman said.
U.S. 2nd Fleet Commander and NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk Commander Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis addresses the audience at a ceremony celebrating JFC Norfolk reaching full operational capability (FOC), as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley listens. Defense News photo.
U.S. 2nd Fleet Commander and NATO Joint Force Command Norfolk Commander Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis addresses the audience at a ceremony celebrating JFC Norfolk reaching full operational capability (FOC), as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley listens. Defense News photo.
Lewis told Defense News after the ceremony that NATO doesn’t have its own military and in that way is relying on member nations to make the right investments in their warfighting capabilities. But where an organization like JFC Norfolk can help is tying the capabilities together, creating a common operating picture for NATO leaders to work with, and ensuring that the structure is in place for NATO militaries to come together rapidly if called upon to respond to a crisis.
Lewis said every time a ship deploys from Norfolk, for example, it’s not just a U.S. military asset but also a node in the NATO common operating picture through JFC Norfolk. Building a clear picture of the Atlantic and Arctic will help NATO get a sense of what “normal” looks like – that way it can respond quickly if an abnormal situation begins to arise.
The recent Steadfast Defender exercise that NATO hosted off Portugal allowed Lewis and JFC Norfolk to test for the first time its ability to assemble a maritime component and flow in from North America to Europe in support of military operations on the other side of the Atlantic.
Courtesy: (Defenseone)
