NorthCom faces growing need for information.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Washington Pulse - Northern Command

Sharing information across government agencies and obtaining a "common operational picture" are key goals for the U.S. Northern Command, said Air Force Mat. Gen. Dale W. Meyerrose.

As director of architecture and integration at U.S. Northern Command, Meyerrose has helped coordinate 47 inter-agency exercises during the past 12 months. At least 85 organizations participated in the exercises, he told a conference of the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, in Arlington, Va.

"We have mapped out how we connect to 650 organizations across the country," said Meyerrose. "Two dozen of those contribute, on a day to day basis, to our common operational picture."

It's not a well-known fact that every man, woman and child in the United States is within 75 miles of a National Guard facility, Meyerrose said. "There are over 5,600 armories in the United States. Every one of those is a potential launching pad for extending our capability to assist."

Northern Command's ability to respond to a crisis was tested on February 1, 2003, in the hours following the space shuttle disaster. "That was a seminal event in our maturation in understanding how we needed to do business in this AOR [area of responsibility]," said Meyerrose.

"In our AOR, the players change in every instance. ... On 1 February we gathered 10 new partners in the first 90 minutes after the shuttle went down, for purposes of just opening lines of communications."

The Northern Command, responsible for homeland security, has a "fairly sophisticated information exchange environment," he noted.

Information sharing is not necessarily seamless, but it has improved considerably, he said.

Among the biggest challenges are breaking through the cultural barriers and developing trust. "We have to motivate organizations to be willing to grant access and know that access will have the right protection parameters," Meyerrose said. "Many people we deal with don't have Defense Department clearances."

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