Military near El Paso will be 'on call' to protect border...

Military near El Paso will be 'on call' to protect border


By Chris Roberts
El Paso Times (TX), March 13, 2008

Military power being concentrated in El Paso and Southern New Mexico will be 'on call' for use against terrorist threats on the nation's Southwest border and local disasters, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Everything from 1st Armored Division soldiers, to a new missile defense unit being created at Fort Bliss, to the F-22 Raptors that are coming to Holloman Air Force Base will be available to defend homeland security, Renuart said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with the El Paso Times.

Renuart, who visited Joint Task Force-North, which is under his command, declined to discuss any details of threats uncovered along the border with Mexico, but he said many agencies, including JTF-North, have made 'it a very difficult border for someone to take advantage of.'

'It is prudent for us to assume that any of these established trafficking routes, whether it's human trafficking or drugs or arms or money, any of those could be used, and so we want to keep our eyes and ears on all of those to ensure that they are not used in that regard,' Renuart said.

Both the F-22 and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile -- designed to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as they re-enter Earth's atmosphere -- are recent additions to the nation's arsenal. A THAAD unit is being created at Fort Bliss.

THAAD 'provides extremely reliable terminal phase missile defense, something we need both with our theater commanders across the (world) as well as here at home, if the threats of rogue nations continue to emerge,' Renuart said. 'We've got to find better ways to integrate that capability into our broader missile defense capability.'

F-22s probably will be used in North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, air patrols.

'Most importantly, it (the F-22) is a commitment to the recapitalization of aging forces in our Air Force,' Renuart said. 'As you know, we are averaging almost 30 years an airframe now, and the F-22 is the best not just air-to-air fighter in the world, but it will bring a great air-to-ground capability.'

Possibly the greatest challenge will be to support National Guard and reserve forces feeling the strain of repeated deployments that also have depleted equipment supplies. Guard units respond to natural disasters as well as bridge collapses and other human-caused incidents.

'Our job at NORTHCOM is to ensure that if there's a seam or a gap there that we're thinking of how we could fill that with some other capability out of' the Defense Department, he said. 'What that has forced us to do it is think about, 'How do you solve that time/distance problem, even on a short-notice event. And so I have access to capabilities now that I didn't have a year or two ago that I can move very quickly to fill that need.

'For example, if there were something that occurred in the El Paso area that the Texas National Guard might not have a capability immediately available to respond, but Fort Bliss did in an active-duty unit, then I would pull that active-duty unit out and make that available to the state to assist.'



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