SMDC leader speaks at MDAA roundtable

Photo By Jason Cutshaw | Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, addresses a Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance-hosted virtual roundtable June 23. Karbler, pictured with Riki Ellison, MDAA chairman and founder, was joined by leaders from U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and the Missile Defense Agency in discussing the role of current and future air and missile defenses during a virtual roundtable discussion on “Global Missile Defense Responsibilities.” (U.S. Army photo)  

REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, UNITED STATES

06.25.2020

Story by Jason Cutshaw 

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama – Military leaders gathered virtually with the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance to discuss their roles in global missile defense and in the defense of the nation during a roundtable June 23.

Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, joined leaders from U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and the Missile Defense Agency to discuss the role of current and future air and missile defense during the discussion on “Global Missile Defense Responsibilities.”

“Everything we’re working at is making sure the generation close to 2020 gets the best air and missile defense capabilities to keep everybody safe,” Karbler said. “I appreciate you inviting me to be on the global missile defense responsibilities forum today. It’s really an honor. It is about relationships as we’re into global missile defense responsibilities and how you build on those relationships, how you interact the frequency of them. It can't just be a pickup game.”

MDAA, a private, non-profit organization, advocates for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces and its allies against missile threats. Their goal is to educate the American public about missile defense issues and to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense.

“We have a single purpose and mission,” said Riki Ellison, MDAA chairman and founder. “We're all about making our nation and the world a safer place through the development, the evolution and deployment of missile defenses. We have a national defense strategy that’s calling us to compete with our near peers. We have limited capacity and capability that are deployed today under extreme high demand across our combatant commands.

“Today’s discussion is, how do we make this better?” Ellison added. “How do we set the conditions to make our nation and the world safer through the deployment, the evolution and development of missile defense systems?”

Karbler said that JFCC IMD leads U.S. Strategic Command’s integration efforts, working closely with all Department of Defense stakeholders and allies and partners. He added that USASMDC is also leading the Army’s air and missile defense integration efforts.

“I work for STRATCOM, but I’m also the Army Service Component Command to U.S. Space Command,” Karbler said. “That's important to me because we’ve got to integrate our space capabilities into the missile defense mission.”

Karbler said multi-domain operations rely on integration with clear roles, responsibilities, and joint policy and doctrine to increasingly emphasize integrated planning. He said that missile defense is not just a transregional challenge, it is a global one and requires planning synchronization across combatant commands, as well as allies and partners.

“I am the Army’s air and missile defense enterprise integrator,” Karbler said. “I report directly to the secretary of the Army and the chief of staff of the Army on all those Army-specific air and missile defense issues that come up. That gives me the distinct view of AMD forces and capabilities.”

Karbler explained that integration is a priority and that the recent Missile Defense Review gave guidance on how to clarify and optimize missile defense roles and responsibilities across the DOD.

He said ensuring warfighter involvement in requirements and fielding processes to assess how better to use missile warning assets against emerging threats is important, as well as the need to rapidly transition ready systems and focus materiel developers on research and development to keep pace with evolving threats.

“When I took command, I said in my 32 years of being in the Army, never had I seen Space and Missile Defense Command, more relevant than it was then,” Karbler said. “And that holds true for today. Missile defense plays a major role in denying benefit. So my interface with USSTRATCOM is to make sure that those missile defense forces are there and available, whether regionally or globally to make sure that we’re denying adversary benefit.

“That’s super important as we look at where we have capabilities around the globe to make sure that they are equally dispersed to the combat commands to support their mission needs so that the adversaries don’t feel that they could take advantage of a lesser missile defense capability in a particular region,” he added.

Karbler highlighted modernization efforts saying the Army planned to invest more than $24 billion for advanced sensors, weapon systems, and command, control and communications.

He said the Army requires an Indirect Fire Protection Capability that integrates with the Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense, or AIAMD, network architecture, which uses the IAMD Battle Command System, or IBCS, as its command and control, to enable a multi-domain ready Army by 2035.

“As we know, the Patriot force is probably one of the most highly deployed forward station to conventional forces in the Army,” Karbler said. “There's just a huge demand on the Army’s Patriot forces. One of the things that I like to say, though, is people keep clamoring for more and more air defenses. We can't Patriot our way out of this. AMD is a team sport. And so we can’t just always rely on the Army air and missile defense forces to provide capabilities. It really does have to be a joint effort.

“Globally, if we’re unbalanced in one area, then the other geographic combatant commanders could be without capability,” he added.

• Date Taken: 06.25.2020
• Date Posted: 06.25.2020 15:38
• Story ID: 372839
• Location: REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, US