U.S., Japan Both 'Thinking Big' on StrategyBy Karen ParrishAmerican Forces Press Service TOKYO, July 21, 2012 - Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters here today that as the United States rebalances its defense strategy toward the Asia-Pacific, "our central and anchoring" ally, Japan, is also beginning a strategic shift.
"We're both, in a sense, thinking big and thinking strategically at the same time," he added. "That has great potential." Carter noted his visit to Asia-Pacific nations, which will also include stops in Thailand, India and South Korea, follows similar trips by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. Those visits, Carter noted, focused on articulating the new strategy, which the president announced in January. His own presence here, he added, is aimed at getting the gears turning. "They sent me here because my job as the chief management officer of the Department of Defense is to implement that vision," the deputy secretary said. "I came to this region to meet with our friends and partners and allies -- [and] to meet with and assess our own forces throughout the region -- with an eye to carrying out that turning of the strategic corner." Carter said while growth is slowing in the United States' defense budget, the necessary resources are available to fund the new Asia-Pacific focus. "All of the capacity that has been tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years is capacity that we can focus now on the Asia-Pacific region, and that's a tremendous amount of capability," he said. Within the existing defense budget, Carter added, "We are shifting the weight of our innovation and investment from counterinsurgency-type warfare to the kinds of capabilities that are most relevant to the Asia-Pacific theater." He noted putting the strategy in place is "just a matter of making it happen, and deciding which specific things to do." Defense leaders are determined to make those decisions in consultation with U.S. friends and allies, the deputy secretary said. Carter said Japan is America's central regional ally and has been for many decades. "Naturally I come here first, to Tokyo," he said. The U.S. and Japan, he added, have "tremendous momentum in many, many areas: joint planning, technology sharing, [and] joint exercises and training." Carter traveled to Japan from Guam. He noted that Guam, an island U.S. territory, offers important training opportunities for both U.S. and Japanese forces. "In both of our countries, it becomes more and more difficult to do the kind of training that requires access to wide areas of territory," he said. "And that is possible in Guam, so that's a great opportunity for both of us." Carter added that Guam is also important to both nations as a consequence of the "2+2" agreement U.S. and Japanese defense and diplomatic leaders signed in April. Under that agreement, nearly 5,000 U.S. Marines currently stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa will transfer to Guam, while the United States will return to Japan much of the land in Okinawa those forces now use. "The 2+2 agreement with respect to the movement of Marines to Guam was a great milestone," Carter said. "From my point of view I'm very optimistic that there's momentum on both sides to implement the agreement. I think that's the way forward." The U.S. and Japan have long debated how to relocate many of the Marines on Guam, Carter said, noting the issue was settled "by the 2+2 agreement and I think that is a very good thing." Carter added that Guam represents more than just a new site for the rotational deployment of Marines. "There's a large Air Force base, there's a large Navy base; Japanese forces have been to each and exercised from each, and those are important capabilities irrespective of the Marine Corps issue," he said. Carter has also taken part on discussions with the new commander of U.S. Forces Japan, Air Force Lt. Gen. Salvatore A. Angelella, who took command July 20. The deputy secretary told reporters the general "will be a great partner for the government of Japan." In every way, the deputy secretary said, there is a lot of forward progress in the U.S.-Japanese alliance. "It's a great time to be here, [and a] great time of new purpose and new horizons," Carter said. |
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| Biographies: Ashton B. Carter Related Sites: Special Report: Travels With Carter Related Articles: Carter: U.S. to Work with Japan on Osprey Analysis Carter Addresses Joint Strike Fighter Program |
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Carter:
Defense CIO:
Wireless Spectrum a Critical Enabler
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2012 - "Spectrum is the critical enabler that ensures information is dependably available to train our forces and ensure our mission accomplishment," Teresa M. Takai, the chief information officer for the Department of Defense, said today.
Takai was speaking at the announcement of the release of a report, "Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth," from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST.
The report was released following President Barack Obama's June 2010 memo asking federal agencies to free up 500 megahertz of space in the radio spectrum for the ongoing growth of wireless services and to help further economic growth.
"We are dependent on industry for innovative products that can be used for national security," Takai said. "In that regard, we remain fully committed in support of the national economic and security goals of the president's 500 MHz initiative."
"Military spectrum requirements are diverse and complex," she added. "We must ... recognize the growing spectrum demands resulting from [DOD's] increasing reliance on spectrum-dependent technologies."
As an example, Takai cited the increased use of unmanned aerial systems, or UASs, to process critical intelligence and reconnaissance data. The number of UASs accessing the government-held spectrum increased from 167 in 2002 to more than 7,500 in 2010, resulting in a dramatic increase in UAS use and training requirements, she said.
To cope with the increasing demand, the U.S. will need to adopt an "all of the above strategy," said Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council. Such a strategy, he said, will entail not just traditional reallocation of frequencies, but infrastructure development, incentive auctions and new technologies.
"If the nation expands its options for managing federal spectrum, we could transform the availability of this national resource from scarcity to abundance," said Mark Gorenberg, the chair of the PCAST working group responsible for the report.
The PCAST report recommended employing new technologies to more efficiently utilize the existing spectrum. For example, the report suggested, rather than reserving a frequency for use by a single agency or private company, new technologies can allow a frequency to be shared by a many users.
This approach could lead to a "shared-use superhighway," according to the report, moving away from the idea of single band ownership in favor of larger groups of shared frequencies. This superhighway would be a tiered system that establishes a hierarchy on frequencies shared by multiple entities while routing traffic to open spaces on those frequencies.
Pointing to a 95 MHz-wide section of the spectrum that is currently shared by more than 20 agencies holding more than 3,000 frequency assignments, many of them defense related, Lawrence Strickling, the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce, said: "It will take at least ten years and about $18 billion to clear this band of the federal uses and then make it available to commercial uses."
"It's going to cost too much and take too long to reallocate this spectrum the old-fashioned way. The solution, as PCAST recommends, is for federal agencies and commercial users to share the spectrum," said Strickling, who also serves as the assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information.
"The implementation of more effective and efficient use of this finite radio frequency spectrum and the development of solutions to meet these goals is essential to national security and economic goals," Takai said.
"The move from an exclusive-right spectrum management regime to one focused on large-scale spectrum sharing between federal and commercial systems represents a major shift in the way spectrum is managed," Takai added. "While this shift represents many challenges, we will continue to work with our industry partners and our government partners to develop equitable spectrum sharing solutions."
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2012 - "Spectrum is the critical enabler that ensures information is dependably available to train our forces and ensure our mission accomplishment," Teresa M. Takai, the chief information officer for the Department of Defense, said today.
Takai was speaking at the announcement of the release of a report, "Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth," from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST.
The report was released following President Barack Obama's June 2010 memo asking federal agencies to free up 500 megahertz of space in the radio spectrum for the ongoing growth of wireless services and to help further economic growth.
"We are dependent on industry for innovative products that can be used for national security," Takai said. "In that regard, we remain fully committed in support of the national economic and security goals of the president's 500 MHz initiative."
"Military spectrum requirements are diverse and complex," she added. "We must ... recognize the growing spectrum demands resulting from [DOD's] increasing reliance on spectrum-dependent technologies."
As an example, Takai cited the increased use of unmanned aerial systems, or UASs, to process critical intelligence and reconnaissance data. The number of UASs accessing the government-held spectrum increased from 167 in 2002 to more than 7,500 in 2010, resulting in a dramatic increase in UAS use and training requirements, she said.
To cope with the increasing demand, the U.S. will need to adopt an "all of the above strategy," said Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council. Such a strategy, he said, will entail not just traditional reallocation of frequencies, but infrastructure development, incentive auctions and new technologies.
"If the nation expands its options for managing federal spectrum, we could transform the availability of this national resource from scarcity to abundance," said Mark Gorenberg, the chair of the PCAST working group responsible for the report.
The PCAST report recommended employing new technologies to more efficiently utilize the existing spectrum. For example, the report suggested, rather than reserving a frequency for use by a single agency or private company, new technologies can allow a frequency to be shared by a many users.
This approach could lead to a "shared-use superhighway," according to the report, moving away from the idea of single band ownership in favor of larger groups of shared frequencies. This superhighway would be a tiered system that establishes a hierarchy on frequencies shared by multiple entities while routing traffic to open spaces on those frequencies.
Pointing to a 95 MHz-wide section of the spectrum that is currently shared by more than 20 agencies holding more than 3,000 frequency assignments, many of them defense related, Lawrence Strickling, the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce, said: "It will take at least ten years and about $18 billion to clear this band of the federal uses and then make it available to commercial uses."
"It's going to cost too much and take too long to reallocate this spectrum the old-fashioned way. The solution, as PCAST recommends, is for federal agencies and commercial users to share the spectrum," said Strickling, who also serves as the assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information.
"The implementation of more effective and efficient use of this finite radio frequency spectrum and the development of solutions to meet these goals is essential to national security and economic goals," Takai said.
"The move from an exclusive-right spectrum management regime to one focused on large-scale spectrum sharing between federal and commercial systems represents a major shift in the way spectrum is managed," Takai added. "While this shift represents many challenges, we will continue to work with our industry partners and our government partners to develop equitable spectrum sharing solutions."
| Biographies: Teresa M. Takai Related Sites: PCAST Documents/Reports |
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