Pentagon prepares plan for defending U.S. homeland.

The Defense Department is working on a comprehensive homeland defense strategy that will detail the Pentagon's emerging role in protecting the United States from terrorist attack.

The study, which is scheduled to be completed late this month, "is going very well," said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. "I have attended nine working group briefings within the past 24 hours," he told National Defense.

The document will outline how the department cooperates with the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard U.S. territory, residents and critical infrastructure against external threats, McHale said. DHS is responsible for securing the nation's borders; protecting air, land and sea transportation, and enforcing immigration laws and regulations.

The Pentagon's role is to stop terrorists in their home bases, such as Afghanistan, or in the air or at sea, before they reach the United States, McHale said. Within U.S. territory, he said, the Federal Posse Comitatus Act prohibits military personnel from engaging in law enforcement activities. As a result, the Defense Department's role is limited to providing support to DHS and other civil authorities, when requested.

Since 9/11, McHale said, the department has implemented "a substantial number of improvements" in its ability to perform these missions.

In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recommended--and Congress approved--appointment of an assistant secretary to provide overall supervision of its homeland defense activities. McHale, a former Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania and a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, got the job.

During that same year, he explained, the Pentagon activated the U.S. Northern Command, the first combatant command ever assigned to defend the land, sea and air approaches to the United States. In 2003, NORTHCOM achieved full operational capability.

Also in 2003, McHale was assigned responsibility for protecting infrastructure that is considered critical for national defense. "We consolidated critical-infrastructure protection funding within the office of the secretary of defense into a single program, managed by the newly-established defense program office for mission assurance," he said.

The office concentrates upon essential defense-related facilities, including transportation, logistics, financial services, public works, personnel, defense information, space, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Most of these are owned by the private sector or by state or local governments, but a sudden, unexpected failure of one or more could cause serious damage to the country as a whole, McHale said.

"This office conducts focused research and development programs, using a systems approach for critical infrastructure protection activities supporting Defense Department missions," he said. "We also have taken steps to protect critical defense installations and facilities from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats."

McHale said the Pentagon is working on department-wide installation-protection standards and requirements that will be applied at 200 key installations over the next several years.

McHale works with Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, on all intelligence matters related to homeland defense. Cambone's office, created by Congress in 2003, is charged with ensuring that the Pentagon leadership receives all warnings, actionable intelligence and counter-intelligence support necessary for national defense.

Cambone oversees the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and National Security Agency, as well as the military intelligence organizations. He also serves as a single point of contact between defense-related intelligence activities and those of the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department and DHS.

The Pentagon is a full partner in the terrorist threat integration center, a joint venture of these agencies launched in 2003, McHale said. The center collects terror-related information from all intelligence organizations in an effort to form a comprehensive, seamless picture of any threats.

McHale is the Pentagon's principal representative to the staff of the Homeland Security Council, which was established after 9/11 to play a role in homeland security similar to that of the National Security Council in international crises. The HSC includes the president, vice president, defense secretary, homeland security secretary, attorney general and other cabinet officials.

"From personal experience," McHale said, "I can attest that the HSC has become an effective forum for interagency communication on homeland security and homeland defense matters, including evaluation of terrorist threats and the development of responses in a crisis environment."

For example, he noted, the HSC functioned effectively throughout several weeks of Code Orange Alert during the December 2003 holiday season.

McHale said he is working hard to build relationships between his department and DHS. "We have nearly completed a memorandum of agreement with DHS, under which [the Defense Department] will continue to provide, on a detail basis, 64 personnel to DHS to fill critical specialties, primarily in the areas of communications and intelligence," he explained. "We also have established a 24/7 [defense] presence in the DHS homeland security operations center with direct connectivity back to [this department] for rapid response."

In addition, McHale said, the Pentagon organized planning teams to assist the DHS interagency incident management group, composed of senior officials from several agencies to respond to emergencies. "This year, we are enhancing our partnership with DHS by establishing a [Pentagon] advisory and liaison office--called the homeland defense coordination office--within DHS headquarters."

McHale coordinates all Pentagon efforts to transfer military technology to federal, state and local first responders. As recent examples, he cited:

* Information-sharing systems, such as disaster-management interoperability services.

* Biometrics identification technologies.

* Ground sensors for border security.

* Unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Pentagon also is conducting new advanced concept technology demonstrations that could have applications for homeland defense and DHS missions, McHale said. The high-altitude airship, for example, is a prototype, untethered platform that could provide wide-area surveillance and communications capabilities. The air-transportable cargo screening demonstrator is designed to detect explosives in pallet cargo loads moving through military transportation systems.

In all, McHale noted, the Defense Department invests nearly $100 million a year in the technical support working group. The group is a Pentagon-led joint venture that seeks to rapidly develop technologies and equipment to meet the high-priority needs of the anti-terrorist community. It brings together more than 85 federal agencies to identify, prioritize, and coordinate interagency and international research and development requirements for combating terrorism.