Daily Archives: February 9, 2017

The destroyer Porter and a P8-A Poseidon sub hunter on Wednesday kicked off the at-sea portion of a NATO exercise on Russia's doorstep.

Exercise Sea Shield is an annual maritime drill designed to get NATO forces used to working together in the event of a conflict, according to a Navy release.

We've already strengthened our interoperability through the in-port planning phase of Sea Shield 2017, and Porter in particular is looking forward to the operational phase at sea, said Cmdr. Andria Slough, the Porters skipper. Advanced exercises like Sea Shield provide us with an opportunity to work across all warfare areas, ultimately improving our combined readiness and naval capability with our Black Sea allies and partners.

Porter is based in Rota, Spain, and the P-8A is from Patrol Squadron 45 based in Jacksonville, Florida.

The U.S. forces are joining NATO Standing Maritime Group 2. Countries involved in the exercise include Bulgaria, Romania, Canada, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

The Russian defense minister released a statement last week calling on NATO to keep the exercises contained and to not challenge the Russian Federation.

We hope that the drills will be conducted in the safest possible environment without challenges towards the Russian Federation, said Segey Shoigu, according to the state-funded news agency Russia Today. In any case, we are ready for such challenges.

The annexation of Crimea was a wake-up call for NATO, which has shifted its focus to confronting the high-end threat posed by Russia after years of low-end counter-piracy and counter-terror missions.

"It used to come naturally 25 years ago," Hudson said. "We used to do big, complex NATO exercises in all environments, but the world has changed. We haven't been doing as many of those in the last 10, 15 years. But I think Ukraine has told us we need to up our game and I think that's the plan in the near future."

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US Navy kicks of military drills with NATO on Russia's doorstep - NavyTimes.com

Few outside of the NATO community realize that one of the alliance's two strategic commands is located not in Europe, but in Norfolk, Virginia. Stood up as NATO began to reorient itself in response to the threats and challenges of the 21st century, Allied Command Transformation, or ACT, is now nearing its 15th anniversary in Norfolk. Today, ACT is charged to look to the future and help the alliance develop new capabilities, forces and doctrine for emerging challenges. But now is the time to consider ACTs future in light of new political realities in America and the worsening security situation in Europe.

For starters, ACT should move to Washington to be closer to American decision-makers and to be able to more effectively draw on the discussions and the decisions being made at the Pentagon. In addition, it is more crucial than ever that American leaders are reminded of NATO's importance on a near-daily basis. What better way than to have a strategic NATO command right next door to the White House, Congress, the State Department and the Pentagon?

All of this matters because of the role of ACT inside NATO. The two major commands in NATOs relatively light organization deal with two different sides of NATOcurrent operations and preparing for the future. Located in Mons, Belgium, NATO Allied Command Operations handles the coordination of the numerous ongoing international operations under a NATO flag. NATO countries also provide forces for other operations such as Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria. ACT, on the other hand, is tasked with the business development side of the alliance. ACT is a somewhat overlooked node in a powerful network for the United States and the allianceand, because of the way the alliance works, also for U.S. national interests.

The organization behind NATO is relatively smallonly a few thousand people. NATO as an organization does not have significant military assets. The member states have control with their own armed forces and can choose to use them under a NATO hat or in an ad hoc coalition of the willing.

Through NATO, allied nations learn how to modernize their armed forces and invest for future capabilities and through training and regular standardization they develop common ways for operating together. The resulting interoperability means that NATO militaries are prepared to deploy and contribute to military operations also outside of NATO, such as in Operation Inherent Resolve. ACT plays a crucial role in this effort.

A move to Washington should not mean that NATO departs the Norfolk area. Instead, NATO should leave behind a planning cell that could provide the beginnings of a structure that could support U.S. reinforcements across the Atlantic in times of crisis. A linkage could be made with U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which is responsible for providing U.S. naval forces to the various geographical combatant commands.

Its time to bring NATO to Washington, both as a constant reminder of the alliance's importance to U.S. decision-makers and to energize ACTs purpose for being: transforming NATO toward tackling the many security challenges of the 21st century. And President Donald J. Trump should welcome having a strategic NATO command as a next-door neighbor.

Magnus Nordenman is the director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. Henrik Breitenbauch is the director of the University of Copenhagens Centre for Military Studies and is a nonresident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council.

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Let's bring NATO to Washington - DefenseNews.com

NATO on Wednesday released the first major revision to the Tallinn Manual, the closest thing there is to a rulebook for nation-led cyber operations.

Like the original 2013 manual, the new version is the result of a study by NATO to gauge consensus opinions from international law experts on what types of cyber statecraft are acceptable.

Let me assure you, the manual will sit on the desk of every legal advisor in every ministry of defense and every ministry of foreign affairs in the entire world, Director and General Editor Michael Schmitt saidat a press briefing before its launch at the Atlantic Council headquarters in Washington.

The original text was extremely influential and widely used.

Both manuals pull together law originally developed to cover fields ranging from armed conflicts to outer space to extrapolate the likely legal consequences for cyber operations. But while the first draft covered war-like cyber attacks between nations, the new draft adds legal analysis of peacetime operations.

The book compiles the expertise of dozens of international law experts who huddled to determine which issues had a clear legal consensus. Dozens more, including current government representatives, provided non-voting advice.

The new book comes after a variety of new nation-led attacks begin to reshape how politicians view the prospect of cyber warfare.

Many U.S. lawmakers have argued that the breach at the Office of Personnel Management should be considered something beyond run-of-the-mill espionage. Espionage is considered legal by international law, but the immense scope of the breach has lead some to wonder if the breach was a special circumstance beyond what was acceptable.

That is not correct as a matter of law, said Schmitt, who had personal information stolen in the breach.

Espionage is espionage is espionage. It doesnt matter if you steal one document or five million files. Espionage is not unlawful under international law.

But the experts could not reach a consensus on the Democratic National Committee breach that impacted last year's presidential race.

Espionage is often prosecuted as a violation of national laws. The authors agreed that if Russia in fact stole and distributed the files, it was definitely in violation of U.S. laws, and that if Russia coerced voters, it would be in violation of the international laws. But they differed on which jurisdiction the attacks would fall under.

The new manual, caution Vihul and Schmitt, is not legal doctrine, but instead an analysis of the legal standing of various activities under current laws. But they say it will work as a tool to guide nations on how solid their footing might be in the international community to make different arguments.

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NATO releases new guide for international cyber laws | TheHill - The Hill

MOSCOW Russia views Romania as a NATO outpost and as a threat due to it hosting elements of a U.S. anti-missile shield, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing a Russian foreign ministry official.

The U.S. military, which says the shield is needed to protect from Iran, not threaten Russia, switched on the $800 million Romanian part of the shield in May last year. Another part of the shield is due to be built in Poland.

"Romania's stance and the stance of its leadership, who have turned the country into an outpost, is a clear threat for us," Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, told Interfax in an interview.

"All these decisions ... are in the first instance aimed against Russia," he said, accusing Romanian authorities of reveling in anti-Russian rhetoric.

Moscow's comments come as NATO deploys thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry to Poland, the Baltic states and southeastern Europe, in its biggest buildup since the Cold War.

U.S. and NATO officials say the move is needed to provide extra security and reassurance to European countries after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, but Russia says it is part of an aggressive strategy on its borders.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alexander Winning)

TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new cabinet level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, a Japanese government official involved in planning the summit said.

SEOUL Lawyers for South Korean President Park Geun-hye have rejected a plan by a special prosecutor investigating a graft scandal to question her, citing a media leak, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said on Thursday.

STOCKHOLM Eight countries have joined an initiative to raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls caused by President Donald Trump's ban on U.S.-funded groups around the world providing information on abortion, Sweden's deputy prime minister said.

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Russia calls Romania 'a clear threat' and NATO outpost: Ifax - Reuters