Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander at the North American Aerospace Defense and Nothern Commands, said the U.S. government must maintain vigilance with increased activities in the Arctic region. O’Shaughnessy noted that Northcom and NORAD should prioritize the development of a framework to utilize an array of sensor systems to reinforce domain awareness, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.
He noted the Northern Command has partnered with the service branches to validate methods of operation in the Arctic area. In addition, O’Shaughnessy said the government should build a defeat mechanism to mature from single point defense to a wider area of coverage.
“We have to advance from these stovepipe systems to this broad-level architecture … that’s clearly joint,” said O’Shaughnessy. “It has to be able to ingest all of the various sensors we have out there and be able to bring it to a command and control capability,” he added.
