NORAD and USNORTHCOM Vision 2020 - click here to read
MISSIONS
NORAD and USNORTHCOM have complementary missions and members of our headquarters staffs work to fulfill our homeland defense responsibilities. The two Commands operate within a common security environment and share common values, understanding the urgency and importance of our duties in light of very real and present dangers.
The NORAD Agreement assigns the missions and responsibilities for Commander NORAD while the Unified Command Plan establishes the missions and responsibilities for Commander USNORTHCOM. We continually evaluate these mission statements to ensure they remain relevant and appropriate.
NORAD Mission In close collaboration with homeland defense, security, and law enforcement partners, prevent air attacks against North America, safeguard the sovereign airspaces of the United States and Canada by responding to unknown, unwanted, and unauthorized air activity approaching and operating within these airspaces, and provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America.
USNORTHCOM Mission USNORTHCOM anticipates and conducts Homeland Defense and Civil Support operations within the assigned area of responsibility to defend, protect, and secure the United States and its interests.
VISION
Our most solemn obligation is to defend our homelands. This obligation demands an unyielding commitment to leadership and an abiding pledge to succeed. We cannot afford to fail, for the stakes are too high. Continually challenging assumptions and the status quo is crucial to our Commands’ endurance and relevance.
We will respond not a minute too soon, or a second too late. In providing defense support of civil authorities, we respond to natural and manmade disasters, save lives, prevent loss and mitigate suffering.
We must constantly challenge “the way it is” in favor of “the way it ought to be.” As we look to the year 2020, we assure success by creating, refining and transforming as necessary and by intelligently and courageously making appropriate decisions. Unity of effort and unity of results are part of all we do. Innovation will be key, as we continually reevaluate our processes, procedures, organizations and individual positions ensuring that all efforts lead effectively to the best possible defense and security of our homelands. In the future, we will broaden our scope and direction, but will always consider our collective overarching security responsibilities as paramount. Our Charter is clear: we must actively seek and aggressively advocate solution that serve the best collective interests of national security and continental defense.
NORAD and USNORTHCOM shall be synonymous with continental and homeland defense expertise and excellence worldwide. We intend to serve as a universal model for collaboration, integrating aerospace and maritime warning, aerospace control and multi-domain homeland defense. We will champion collaborative efforts to take on the most challenging issues and develop solutions that are effective, efficient, unbiased and in the best interests of all whom we serve. We will aggressively explore and develop new, innovative and imaginative ways of thinking and willingly share our best practices.
OUR PARTNERS
Our Commands fully rely on the relationships we maintain with partners such as Canada, Mexico and myriad agencies. While we have multiple partners and stakeholders, we are united in purpose to provide increased security and defense of North America. We will capitalize on the experience, expertise and capabilities of all potential partners, incorporating these into our plans, training, exercises and operations. Whether operating in a supported or supporting role, the forces employed for homeland defense or civil support must be able to work with every government, Service, and agency that provides members to serve in homeland and continental defense operations.
The unique and wholly necessary relationships we develop and employ with our many established and ad hoc partners will produce trust, enhanced capabilities, mutual advocacy and the culture of collaboration requisite to achieve our missions. These relationships compel our special focus on:
Respect and culture We will continue to respect the laws, sovereignty and values of all our partners and acknowledge the cultural sensitivities attendant to collective efforts. Our operations will always be “Joint,” will usually involve interagency partners and when appropriate, will be “Combined.” We will maintain special focus on the capabilities of our nations’ reserve components—to include the National Guard—and national, provincial, state, local and tribal organizations in order to capitalize upon the roles, missions and strengths of others in providing for our common defense and security. We will also reinforce the United States government’s efforts to instill a “culture of preparedness” among our citizenry, and encourage our neighbors Canada and Mexico to do the same.
Collaboration, communication and engagement Collaboration is the fundamental cornerstone for every aspect of our operations. To facilitate this, partnership-building and deliberative engagement activities must be consistent, comprehensive and mutual: we will engage partners to reinforce trust, communication, cooperation and collaborative enterprise development, while enhancing information-sharing practices. We will develop and execute a robust and viable Commander’s Communication Strategy so as to bolster the confidence of our nations’ citizens, our partners and our allies in our ability and resolve to successfully accomplish each of our missions. We will contribute to a mission-success orientation among all prospective partners and networks and our messages crafted for public consumption will be positive, honest, reassuring and proactive—to reinforce public confidence in our Commands’ abilities.
Advocacy Working with diverse partners requires enhanced interoperability. To that end, we will advocate for partners’ appropriate capabilities, competencies and resources. We will actively promote the development, availability and employment of a timely, comprehensive and relevant common operating picture for continental security, homeland defense and civil support. We will continue to lead military efforts to integrate, coordinate and synchronize with partners from all sectors, sources and levels as we advocate the training, equipment and resources necessary to accomplish our collective missions. In addition to endorsing tangible improvements, we will regularly encourage innovative approaches and philosophies for an effective combined defense.