Internal partners engage in missile defense exercise

Courtesy Photo | In-person participants of NIMBLE TITAN 20 gather in Suffolk, Virginia, April 18, for a group photo. The integrated air and missile defense campaign of experimentation was hosted by the U.S. Strategic Command and executed by the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense. (Courtesy photo)  

SUFFOLK, VA, UNITED STATES

04.18.2021

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command

SUFFOLK, Virginia – On April 18, representatives from 20 partner nations and three international organizations across four continents collaborated on NIMBLE TITAN 20, an integrated air and missile defense campaign of experimentation.

More than 160 participants contributed in-person, from Suffolk, Virginia, and virtually from locations all across the globe, reducing COVID-19 risk while succeeding across all the event’s objectives.

The event was the culmination of three years of planning and consultation on policy issues and challenges faced by nations from potential threats posed by adversary missiles on both regional and global scales. This includes the full range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic actions from pre-crisis to conflict.

Hosted by the U.S. Strategic Command and executed by the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, USSTRATCOM’s missile defense arm, organizers and participants utilized virtual desktops to interact via voice, video, chat and file sharing in order to adjust for impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m impressed with the resilience and ingenuity on display from both JFCC IMD who organizes and executes this campaign and our valued allies and partners. In spite of travel restrictions, you haven’t let COVID stop your efforts to continue the important work of NIMBLE TITAN,” explained keynote speaker Admiral Charles Richard, USSTRATCOM commander, via a pre-recorded speech.

As the person responsible for leading and advocating for U.S. strategic capabilities in order to deter strategic attacks, Richard went on to describe the value he places on missile defense.

“Missile defense plays an important role in a comprehensive strategic deterrence framework,” Richard said. “The relationship between U.S. missile defense and the U.S. nuclear arsenal is symbiotic and mutually supportive. To establish and maintain strategic deterrence, we drive to deny any adversary their aim, or impose a cost greater than what they seek, such that the benefit of restraint outweighs the perceived benefit of their possible action.”

The NIMBLE TITAN series of events utilizes a globally-integrated scenario, set in a notional timeframe 10-years in the future, which allows members to experiment in an unclassified and non-attributional environment. As potential adversaries field more complex air and missile defense systems and more nations field defensive systems in response, the importance of integrating allied and partner capabilities becomes ever-more relevant for the future. At NIMBLE TITAN, allies and partners have the opportunity to explore the policy frameworks and cooperation that build and strengthen relationships, as well as inform senior-leader military decisions that support deterrence and response options.

“The scale and overall complexity of the strategic environment is changing, which require us to evolve our overall approach. Integration is one of the primary means to meet the challenges of this multi-domain operational environment,” said Richard.

The Suffolk-based event focused on cooperative missile defense processes before and during a conflict. Participants faced a dynamic, continuous scenario set in the Asian-Pacific, European, Middle Eastern and North American regions involving multiple simulated adversary threats in the 2030 timeframe. Two seminars were conducted during the event to focus on legal issues of employing counter unmanned aircraft systems, and international policy concerns created by interceptors engaging intended targets, referred to as “Consequence of Engagement.”

The NIMBLE TITAN 20 campaign began in November 2018 with a Campaign Design Conference, where member countries and organizations collaborated on group objectives to explore throughout the remainder of the campaign. NIMBLE TITAN wraps up in November 2021 with a Senior Leader Event designed to highlight or re-visit specific findings from the campaign and allow for an exchange of views on how to best address regional, cross-regional and global missile threats to the international community as well as enabling Senior Leaders to make recommendations for the next campaign. While there are national differences across the span of actions and operations involving missile defense, a critical takeaway from NIMBLE TITAN is a shared understanding of the global military and political environments in order to create conditions for unified action.

• Date Taken: 04.18.2021
• Date Posted: 05.17.2021 13:21
• Story ID: 396500
• Location: SUFFOLK, VA, US