NORTHCOM Has Completed Major Plans but Faces Considerable Challenges That Increase the Overall Risk to Its Ability to Execute Its Plans

NORTHCOM has completed—or is in the process of revising—all of its  major plans. However, NORTHCOM does not regularly track or assess the  required supporting plans from other DOD commands and agencies. NORTHCOM and DOD  have some risk mitigation efforts under way in each of these areas that  partially address the challenges we found. However, it could take  additional steps to reduce the remaining level of risk to its ability to  effectively achieve its mission. As we report in a separate letter,  NORTHCOM has also not systematically reviewed state emergency plans  in order to obtain detailed information about the specific challenges it may  face in conducting homeland defense or civil support operations. NORTHCOM’s Ability to Monitor the Readiness of Forces to Respond to Civil Support Missions Is Hampered

NORTHCOM has difficulty monitoring the readiness of individual military  units because in part, few requirements or units that may respond to a  request for civil support have been identified. Because no mission tasks exist for general civil support missions,  NORTHCOM and DOD face greater uncertainty about their ability to  execute these plans. This may further assist  NORTHCOM in more accurately determining its capability requirements  for civil support missions. NORTHCOM’s Planning Personnel Have Adequate Staff Level and Are Expanding Experience and Training

NORTHCOM has an adequate number of planning personnel, and the  command is pursuing opportunities to expand the experience and training  for staff needed to perform the command’s planning function. NORTHCOM’s planning staff is assigned at over 96 percent of the  command’s authorized staffing level. The military personnel who serve as NORTHCOM planners receive basic  planning-related training similar to that of planners in other combatant  commands. NORTHCOM has sought to address this challenge by integrating personnel  from the National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard into NORTHCOM’s  headquarters staff. In addition, NORTHCOM has developed a  training curriculum for each of its planning personnel. NORTHCOM’s efforts to provide additional training and education for its  staff should help the command expand its experience in planning and  conducting operations with partners at the international, federal, and state  levels. NORTHCOM Has Taken Actions to Improve Interagency Coordination but Lacks a Formal Process to Ensure That Coordination Efforts Are Adopted

NORTHCOM has taken actions to improve the coordination of its  homeland defense and civil support plans and operations with federal  agencies. This planning  system is required to  1.  provide common processes for developing plans;  2.  serve to implement phase one of DHS’s Homeland Security  3. national planning doctrine and planning guidance, instruction, and  process to ensure consistent planning across the federal  government;    a mechanism that provides for concept development to identify and  analyze the mission and potential courses of action;    a description of the process that allows for plan refinement and  proper execution to reflect developments in risk, capabilities, or  policies, as well as to incorporate lessons learned from exercises  and actual events;    a description of the process that links regional, state, local, and  tribal plans, planning cycles, and processes and allows these plans  to inform the development of federal plans;    a process for fostering vertical and horizontal integration of federal,  state, local, and tribal plans that allows for state, local, and tribal  capability assessments to feed into federal plans; and    a guide for all-hazards planning, with comprehensive, practical  guidance and instruction on fundamental planning principles that  can be used at federal, state, local, and tribal levels to assist the  planning process. This is important because responding to a  major disaster in the United States—natural or man-made—is a shared  responsibility of many government agencies with states often requiring  federal assistance from DHS and DOD. Recommendations for Executive Action

To help NORTHCOM reduce the level of risk to its homeland defense and  civil support planning efforts, in conjunction with the new national  planning requirements of the National Response Framework and the  national planning annex to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, we  are making three recommendations:    We recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Commander of  NORTHCOM to complete the process to track the status of all  supporting plans, coordinate the completion of those plans by other  commands and agencies, and assess the suitability of those plans to  meet the intent and objectives of NORTHCOM’s major plans. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine the extent to which U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM)  has prepared plans to execute its homeland defense and civil support  missions, we reviewed NORTHCOM’s available major plans and  supporting plans, comparing them to established Department of Defense  (DOD) joint operational planning criteria for completeness and adequacy. Forces for  Domestic Military Missions.
Why GAO Did This Study

It has been 5 years since the Department of Defense (DOD) established U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to conduct homeland defense and civil support missions in the United States. Planning operations in the United States poses unique challenges for traditional military planning. GAO was asked to assess (1) the status of NORTHCOM's plans and the challenges it faces in planning and conducting operations, (2) the number, experience, and training of planning personnel, and (3) the extent to which NORTHCOM coordinates with other federal agencies. To do this, GAO reviewed available NORTHCOM plans, compared them to joint operational planning criteria, compared planning staff with those at other commands, and reviewed documentation and mechanisms for interagency coordination.

What GAO Found

NORTHCOM has completed--or is in the process of revising--all of the major plans it is required to prepare for its homeland defense and civil support missions, but it faces a number of challenges in planning for and conducting these missions. NORTHCOM has completed its nine required plans. However, NORTHCOM does not know whether supporting plans that must be developed by other DOD organizations to assist NORTHCOM are complete because it has only recently begun to develop a process to track and assess these plans. NORTHCOM faces challenges in three key planning areas. First, NORTHCOM has difficulty identifying requirements for capabilities it may need in part because NORTHCOM does not have more detailed information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the states on the specific requirements needed from the military in the event of a disaster. Second, NORTHCOM has few regularly allocated forces and few capabilities allocated to its plans. DOD could allocate forces to NORTHCOM and assign specific forces to the command's plans, but this would not guarantee that those forces would not have to be deployed elsewhere. However, it would provide DOD and the NORTHCOM commander with a better basis on which to assess the risk that the command would be unable to successfully execute one or more of its missions. Third, NORTHCOM has difficulty monitoring the readiness of military units for its civil support mission because its plans do not specify mission tasks against which units can be assessed. NORTHCOM has undertaken mitigation efforts to address each challenge, and new national planning guidance may further assist NORTHCOM and DOD in addressing the challenges. Nevertheless, NORTHCOM and DOD can take additional actions to reduce the risk from these gaps and reduce the risk due to the overall uncertainty that stems from the nature of its mission. NORTHCOM has an adequate number of planning personnel, and the command is pursuing opportunities to expand the experience and training for staff needed to perform the command's planning function. NORTHCOM's planning staff is filled at over 96 percent of its authorized positions. NORTHCOM's military planning staff receives the same planning training and education as planners in other combatant commands. To draw upon experience in planning and conducting domestic operations, NORTHCOM has integrated National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard personnel into its headquarters staff. NORTHCOM has also developed a curriculum for required mission-related training courses. Although NORTHCOM has taken actions to improve coordination of its homeland defense and civil support plans and operations with federal agencies, it lacks formalized guidance and procedures--such as memorandums of understanding or charters--to help ensure that interagency coordination efforts or agreements that are reached can be fully relied on. This is important because responding to a major disaster in the United States--natural or man-made--is a shared responsibility of many government agencies with states often requiring federal assistance from DHS and DOD.