Air Force Magazine:

Sensors and longer warning time, the ability to deter, and joint all-domain command and control are the top budget priorities for U.S. Northern Command, its commander, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, told the House Armed Services Committee on April 14.

In a hearing on military activities affecting North and South America, VanHerck was asked what his top three budget priorities are in the fiscal 2022 budget.

“Domain awareness is at the top,” he said, “and that would include over-the-horizon radar capability to see beyond where our legacy systems do today.” Second on his “integrated list” would be undersea surveillance to “ensure we know what’s going on” when underwater craft approach North America, “and then obviously that domain awareness and information” that will “give us options” before having to defeat an attacking system with kinetic weapons.

VanHerck said new sensors will “allow us to see further than we have in the past.” He wants to fuse those data with that generated by existing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to assess open-source, social media, and personal traffic. This will “move decision-space left” and buy time to let national leaders engage in “deterrence … and messaging” activity that can stop a kinetic attack before it begins…


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