 General Kaczynski also served in major operations, including operations Southern Watch, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and United Relief. Prior to his current position, the general was deputy commander of the 5th Air Force and director of Joint Air Component Coordination Element, Japan, at Yikota Air Force Base. Please join me in a warm welcome to General Kaczynski and his panel. Leo, over to you, sir. I think we may have to go up there and I'll see if they can welcome them. All right. Good luck. So I'd ask all our panel members to please come up and join me. As they're making their way to the stage here, just an opportunity again to thank the leadership here from Admiral Brown and Chairman Dietrich, General Vainovos, the whole distinguished group of panelists which are members here and the entire audience out here. Please, I'll just talk briefly from here and then I'll join you over there. So I'll share, again, thank you very much for the kind introduction. I will tell you I've been at the Pentagon in my current position about 15 months and you can imagine all of you know everything that's been going on in those 15 months and even prior to that. So a great opportunity to be able to leave the building here for a little bit to join you here today. I shared a conversation earlier this week on Monday with General C. Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And it was an opportunity to spend about an hour with him on a deep dive about what we do in the J-4, but more broadly the Joint Logistics Enterprise. Very interested. You know, he was in our discussion about where from the Joint Staff, from, you know, his, as we're serving as his director for logistics, where our touchpoints, where our influence, where our relationships, how that, you know, throughout the Joint Logistics Enterprise to include allies and partners. And I'll share one of the first examples I gave was NDTA. It was our allies and partners who are represented, you know, very much here on the stage today and how important that is. So I just share how important, in particular with this panel. And so what I'd like to do, I won't be too long-winded here because we've got some great presentations and I think really some great discussion because there's nothing more important. It goes with the theme of how we're leveraging and how we're building on with allies and partners to do anything we need to do. If you look in, you know, recent or long history of the United States of America, there's nothing that we have done on any great scale or scope that has been without allies and partners. And with allies and partners that's broadly with allies, broadly with partners, and that partnership is really the commercial industry, the defense industrial base. Many of you are represented today. And I'd argue right now, what I've seen firsthand in my 15 months here in the job and going forward, there's nothing we can do and we should even consider doing without leveraging and having those deep discussions with our allies and partners. And part of that's that common understanding. And when I get to the introductions here, I think all of the organizations that are represented here are all very important in this very diverse ecosystem of this joint logistics enterprise. And while there's many out there, I think understanding their unique role will be helpful and then set the baseline of knowledge for the discussion coming forward. So I tell this is probably a very simple, everyone, a statement, but it is a very interesting time to be a logistician, you know, currently, and to be in the logistics business, as you can imagine. Collectively, we face strategic competition from organizations determined to globally undermine and disrupt the international order. Very much, I don't know, Estevez, what you were alluding to in discussing it in your presentation. So nations and organizations, we represent face disruptions from rogue states, terrorist organizations, climate change, supply chain shortages, and global pandemics. And you would think something like this would be theoretical, but I think all of those things I've talked about are all things we've all experienced, unfortunately firsthand and seeing that scale and scope of those disruptions. Further, the character of war is changing. Some of you may be familiar with the joint concept, you know, war fighting concept, and a lot of things from previous chairman, General Milly, under his watch had built, and then we're kind of continuing to push forward under General Brown. But the character of war now has proliferation of technology such as drones and artificial intelligence, hypersonic munitions, additive manufacturing, the potential for complex rapid escalation with any instrument of power in any domain is daunting. Lawfare, gray zone activities, trans boundary challenges, membership increasing in NATO, the social demographic changes, economic behavioral trends, all those in particular of today's and tomorrow's workforce add complexity to this emerging environment. Just the sheer amount and velocity of change demands our attention towards our collective defense. One of the roles I serve in the Joint Staff J-4 is to work in representing along with OSD for the NATO Logistics Committee. And this has been an kind of an ongoing discussion with NATO that you have collective defense, of course, and we have collective defense with allies and partners. But for quite some time, there was collective defense, but nations support their own logistics, you know, or you can't do collective defense without collective logistics. And that is an ongoing effort, I think, that NATO will discuss some of that today with our experts. But it kind of goes without saying, but when you don't have that mindset over the last several decades, how to change and to be able to have that. So today, as I mentioned, we are very honored to be here. And I think we are privileged to have a very distinguished panel here with diverse experiences. And in particular with their current vantage points, the multinational panel, a whole of government panel with unique views on our emerging and globally contested logistics environment. And so in particular, you know, I've asked all of them in their briefs to explain their organizations. While many of you might know some of it, but I think for the whole it's very important because it's all of what they do and there's more organizations out there, but they have a critical role in this collective defense and collective logistics. They have a critical role with allies and partners. Now we leverage that. So first on our panel, privileged to introduce Lieutenant General Alexander Solfranc, who I've had the opportunity to know for a few years now. I remember meeting him in one of the first things I did in my job in the J-4. I saw that an office call with Lieutenant General from an organization called J-Stack. And he'll explain, but he is the current commander of the Joint Support and Enabling Command located in, it's a NATO command located in Elm, Germany. And he's been a commander there since March 17th, 2022. But honestly speaking, I did not know about this organization when I had the office call. So I looked through their brochure and background and was amazed of what this organization is designed to do and its aspirations to do that. And based on our discussion and building that, relationships with transcoms and others, how we can build that capability. And as I said, in NATO, that collective logistics wasn't a concept that was practiced, but it is now. And with the General Solfranc, who's been serving his country in the NATO alliance since 1986, commanded on all different echelons from all the way up to his current command, commander of special operations, forces command at the brigade and platoon company level. Also, time in serving in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Kosovo, and back in Somalia in 93, 94. So just an incredible skillset and an incredible organization that I looked very much forward to his presentation. Next is Mr. Allen Gorowitz from, he's a senior executive service member and a strategic advisor at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, DSCA, which maybe some of you are familiar with or not, but they are one of those other organizations that play a critical role in what we are doing, a critical role in our support for Ukraine, a critical role with allies and partners. And so he'll explain to his organization, he's been doing this work for over 20 years for the Department of Defense. Actually started off with the Department of Defense in a very nice place in Garmesh at the George Marshall Center there, but very experienced and I think that insight will be very helpful for the group today and look forward to your comments. And finally is Mr. John Krembs, President of United Cargo under United Airlines, who also has a very, very distinguished career and represents that commercial industry experience. So at United Cargo, the diverse responsibility of all things there for worldwide operations prior to that, Vice President at Air France, KLM, Marner, and that role, he had responsibilities for North and South America for all of their roles and prior to that, about 27 years in KLM working from Middle East to Africa, Asia. So someone with that breadth of knowledge around the world, but also that incredible importance of that commercial industry in particular airlift, which from the joint staff, and you can imagine everything we do around the world is very much appreciated. Now we can leverage that. So I think without any further ado, and I will like to introduce our, oh, I've already introduced our first speaker here, Lieutenant General Sol Frank, but very much look forward to the way the sequence will go. Each one will have their briefings probably about seven to 10 minutes. And at the end, I'd like to kind of get into questions. I have plenty of prepared questions, but I think after you hear their briefings, after you see that, I think it could be a very rich discussion. I look forward to that. Thank you. Thank you, Leo, for the kind introduction. General Van Overs, Admiral Brown. Ladies and gentlemen, it's really an honor for me and a pleasure to be here today in Orlando and participating in this conference. The briefing, the short introduction supported by slides is intended to serve as an appetizer for you. So I step only very briefly into some issues which are of interest for us, as being the Joint Support Enabling Command, and which might serve as the step-in topic for further questions. The JSEC is a pretty new command position in Ulm in between Stuttgart and Munich. It was stood up in 2019. Decisions have been taken much earlier in NATO, the result of the Crimea invasion in 2014, and then through different summits in Wales, Warsaw, and so on. But the starting point for this command was in 2019, and in October 2021, this command showed its formal operating capability. So just in time to be ready for 24 February 2022. I took command pretty shortly after that. So as you can imagine, also a quick start for myself in this issue. Next slide, please. Very briefly, what did NATO decide? What was decided in NATO after the attack? After the attack, NATO reacted swiftly. The nations reacted swiftly. Right now, roughly 40,000 troops, around 140 warplanes, 140 ships are subordinated to secure. General Cavulli, as you know, also commander. US-UCOM, he is the secure, and he has currently this force ready in order to deter further Russian aggression. Deterrence and defense is right now against Russia, the main effort of NATO. And that has been decided in Madrid in 2022. And therefore, all the documents are now focusing on this threat. There's another task combined with terrorist groups, but with regard to Russia, political reasons, these two dangers from outside are to be dealt with. But with regard to Russia, that is the main effort in order to deter and defend NATO territory. In Vilnius, this year in July, important decisions have been taken. The new command and control structure was decided. Secures AOR strategic plan, the SASP, and various sub-strategic plans for land, for air, for maritime, and other topics. And also for our topic, JSEC, with regard to reinforcement and sustainment, has been agreed by the nations, as well as regional plans. These regional plans have been written by the joint forces commands, three existing joint forces commands, and they are responsible stakeholders for their joint operations area. Those three operational plans were also accepted by all NATO nations. At this summit, a new NATO force model has also been decided by the respective nations. And this new force model is referring to a tiered approach in order to counter a Russian aggression. On a tier one level, on the first tiered level, one to 10 days notice to move for a sized force of roughly 100,000 troops. A tier two force is already roughly 200,000 troops within 30 days. And then additionally, roughly 500,000 troops politically agreed already in order to then continue with deterrence. And if required, defense. New allies have also been discussed and agreed in Vilnius, Finland, joint NATO. And right now, it is probable that Sweden is also joining NATO. There is one decision of a parliament of Turkey to decide on this final, that Sweden joins NATO. And then one additional nation is the decision. This is also still not ready, but it looks very positive that these political decisions will be taken. Next slide. So what's the operational approach? In the end, it's about winning the first battle, or at least not losing it, and definitely winning the last battle. As we have experience in the Ukraine war, the Ukraine forces, they successfully denied Russia from taking Kiev, Kostomell, and so on. You all know that. But it's still open whether they are in the end finally successful. And that is the same very general operational approach which we in NATO take into consideration. Due to the fact that not every inch of a 4,000 kilometer border with Russia can be defended, NATO is very much relying on a concept of reinforcement. So compared to the former Cold War times where troops were along the Iron Curtain, positioned in order to defend the current concept is a different one, which is much more relying on a reinforcement of troops in order to be in the position to defend territory wherever required. And therefore, the JSAC's responsibility is now can be described. The reinforcement by forces and the sustainment flow, that is part of our responsibility. We coordinate this. And I just presented the Tier 1 Tier 2 sized force, 100,000 and 200,000 sized troops must be coordinated through the space in a coordinated, synchronized way so that we are really at the location where required and needed in the time when it is necessary. In order to set the theater for this hopefully successful reinforcement sustainment, the enablement of the theater has to be ensured. Therefore, we use this enablement term as something to describe that the preconditions for successful deterrence and for successful defense are really taken care of. And as General Fanobos yesterday referred to the quote that we have to act now in order to adapt when it is time for change. That's the same in our approach. We have to enable the theater now in peacetime. Otherwise, it is not ready in crisis and conflict. Next. This coordination has to be done together with Bajasek in the Secures AOR depicted here, somehow in blue. It's time and space, the forces there, together with 32 nations. 31 right now, but Sweden, 32nd nation. Next. And those are focus areas where we currently focus on. That's the preparation of the theater, enablement of the theater, coordinated deployment. So when everyone rushes through Europe, the probability that we can create confusion and somehow chaos, and it is not a coordinated approach in order to defend. Therefore, we see the coordinated deployment as something as well as a coordinated sustainment flow as an utmost very important requirement. Collective logistics has been mentioned already. Pre-positioning of stocks, clearly the standardization of ammunition and spare parts is a huge topic. We see smart multinationality as an approach in order not to multinationalize in a way how we multinationalize operations and troops in Afghanistan, for example. We have to multinationalize. That's one very important strength of NATO, but in a way so that the national sustainment responsibilities can still be fulfilled. Those are all topics which we could discuss later on. Last, please. Next slide, please. And you might wonder why Albert Einstein is here depicted on this slide. He's born in Ulm, and we think he can support us in our challenges. And effective efficient enablement, E3 at speed and scale, is our slogan. E is equals MC square, and therefore I think we can use this properly. And Einstein is also well known for his quotes. And I looked after a quote this morning, and I think that one of his quotes where he said, we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we use when we created them might be also an opportunity also in order to approach our current challenges which are huge, but I think we are also making good progress. I'm ready for your questions in the panel, looking very much forward to it. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Alan Gower with some from Washington, DC, and I'm here to help. Thank you to all of our co-hosts here. Thank you for the invitation, the opportunity to explore our common challenges and opportunities. I'd like to highlight the DSCA presence here. Yesterday's moderator, three Academy sessions shows that our commitment to working with the transportation community, bringing the security cooperation and the transportation community together to explore the opportunities and challenges that are in the future. Before I talk about some of the key themes and have a discussion, I want to give everybody just a baseline of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the security cooperation community. So I have a short video that I'd like that will sort of provide a little bit of a background. And with that, please roll the video. Security cooperation is strategically important as a tool of national security and foreign policy. It encompasses all U.S. Department of Defense interactions with foreign defense or security establishments to enhance military to military cooperation and enable greater interoperability with the United States, contribute to allied and partner regional security through the development of self-defense and security capabilities, and develop lasting professional relationships between the United States and its allies and foreign partners. Common challenges demand common action. The strength of our activities and programs combined with the United States unmatched network of alliances and partnerships work to provide the maximum effect through deterrence. Security cooperation includes a wide range of activities including but not limited to defense and military engagements, training and education, equipping, exercises, advising, information and intelligence sharing and arms transfer programs, employing authorities and resources from both the Department of State and the Department of Defense. Our full-spectrum approach supports our allies and partners through programs that address not only materiel and related training, but also education and advising on strategy, planning and doctrine and institutional support to deliver an integrated set of capabilities. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, is the U.S. Department of Defense's lead agency for the development and execution of security cooperation activities or programs. DSCA has been leading the security cooperation community now well over 19,000 people strong worldwide for over 50 years. The security cooperation mission can be complex and involves a number of stakeholders both inside and outside of the U.S. government. Stakeholders within the U.S. government, such as the White House, the Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Commerce play significant roles. The U.S. Congress provides oversight over these activities. Even within the Department of Defense, multiple agencies are involved, ranging from the acquisition community, the military departments, the Defense Technology Security Administration and implementing agencies. Outside of the U.S. government, key stakeholders include U.S. industry and our allies and foreign partners. It is a continuous, delicate balance to address the many priorities and requirements at play while ensuring the U.S. Security Cooperation Community remains effective, efficient and transparent throughout a program's life cycle. The largest and most well-known security cooperation program is the Foreign Military Sales Program known as FMS. Authorized by the Arms Export Control Act, FMS is the primary means by which the U.S. government transfers defense articles, services and training through an agreement and sale to allies and partner nations. The FMS program is overseen by the U.S. Department of State to ensure sales and transfers are made consistent with the foreign policy interests of the United States. Implementation of these activities is administered by the Department of Defense as its allies and partners benefit from its technical and operational expertise, existing procurement infrastructure and transparent purchasing practices. Through FMS, allies and partners have every confidence that they receive the best systems at a fair price and that they can depend on the integrity of the American system. Strengthening our allies and partners is a key priority for the Department of Defense and security cooperation is a valuable tool in achieving these objectives. The United States is proud to be the global security cooperation provider of choice and together we build security through global partnerships. Thank you. First slide, please. It's been said many times already that the National Defense Strategy has put a focus on integrated deterrence and that puts a premium on our international partnerships. We are stronger because of our international partners and as you're seeing in Ukraine, we are friends to our partners and I'd just like to again thank all of our international partners that are here, it's really important that you've joined us today and I appreciate the conversations that we've had. For our industry partners you already know the importance of international partnerships in business and in transportation. It's a team sport. The cooperation is built on trust and trust that's built on practice and integrity. In a DSEA we talk about a values approach to security cooperation. We won't beat our strategic competitors by playing at their level. Our uniquely American approach provides us an asymmetric edge. What we do is encourage and enable allies and partners to play security roles in support of our shared challenges. As an academy panel has noted yesterday what we need to do is better communicate whether allies and partners and find out what is it that they can do? What is it that we want them to do? And how can we help them be prepared and have the capabilities and capacity that's necessary? DSEA wants to listen to partners. We want to through our activities and we want to assist them. Security cooperation is a policy tool. Next slide please. Security cooperation is a policy tool executed under guidance by the departments of defense and state and with many other players influencing the partnerships. It's a partnership with DOD, partner nations and industry each with their own priorities. And at DSEA what we try to do is manage all of those different priorities with a keen focus on what our national security mission is. You'll see the U.S. transportation command and the transportation community as key components in the SEA community. It's complicated work. Next slide. DSEA's workforce as you saw is just a small part of the larger security cooperation community. We have over 1,000 people at DSEA alone and we're about to grow as a security cooperation, offices across the globe come underneath DSEA with the secretary's new guidance to bring that under a defense security cooperation service. The broader SEA community is large and diverse. We provide much of the implementation policy, the expertise, the support, that glue that holds it all together. In the end, it's the people dedicated, professional and committed to teamwork that makes it all happen. And I'm so proud of this community right now all of you here that's been a part of what we've seen in Ukraine and now that what we're seeing in Israel. We must continue to get together and talk about how to cooperate each other. We must talk about the challenges now and prepare and practice. You can't surge trust. I'll close by just mentioning here our outgoing Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Call noted shortly into the Ukraine conflict that he said, not since 1973, the Yom Kippur war, have we seen so much surge to a country so quickly and he was just amazed at that and that was long before we knew what was to come. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you. My name is Yom Krims as already introduced in a nice way. More than 36 years in the industry in two companies and really proud to be part of this community and see with our experience of being a commercial airline how we can support and help so that's very important. I plan to give you an insight look at what we do at United Cargo and our link to the military world. Let's start with a short video. This is the story of an airline it begins a century ago. Wait, let's find a better way in. This is the story of an airline one that's a force for good and it's got everything romance, suspense setbacks, seatbacks it's a sci-fi story about a piece of trash that fuels a plane to help protect the planet it's a rescue story to save a connecting flight told over and over and over again and a coming of age story about a little girl who dreamed she could fly and then did trust me you won't want to put this one down in fact you can't because you're in it. Yes, you along with thousands of other hero characters on a mission to do good in the air and beyond making the world a happier friendlier safer greener more inclusive more fascinating place the end no wait that's not right this story doesn't have an ending that's kind of the point of the story we're never finished because this is the story of an airline when good leads the way working United Airlines new ad campaign good leads the way is more passenger driven passenger centric as we are a passenger carrier with a big cargo department but it also applies to cargo in fact I like to say that good leads the way started with cargo as the world was shutting down in March 2020 United recognized the importance of keeping the supply chain moving and shipping goods even though lockdowns were happening and our international schedule was reduced to only six destinations that's when we introduced the freighter only flights in response to COVID we continued our support for humanitarian aid and send supplies vaccines and medicines across the globe we took the lead in the aviation industry with our sustainability initiatives we invested in the future by making one of the largest aircraft purchases in aviation history and we continue to show our support to the military with mail supplies of shipments supplies of shipments mail shipments and cooperation where possible and needed good leads the way is not only to make more money but do the right things and to do good in life we were the first airline to launch freight only flights in March 2020 and immediately started with the flights from the US to Europe we continue to find new and innovative ways to fill our planes to this day even though our passengers have returned even if the passengers have returned during the pandemic we moved more than 2 billion pounds of cargo on our freighter only flights and passenger flights we operated more than 15,000 freighter only flights we have 17,000 up till now but not changing the construction of the flight to make sure that the moment we could fly again these planes could go back into service on these flights we moved more than 800 million pounds of cargo office supplies, home entertainment exercise equipment, food and especially a lot of aid we moved more than 370 million pounds of medical shipments and more than 2 billion doses of COVID vaccine we were the first in November to fly the commercial Pfizer shipments from Brussels to Chicago and we were very proud of that United Cargo works with freight forwarders and humanitarian organizations to deliver critical aid to communities in crisis examples are oxygen concentrators to India water and supplies to areas hit by hurricanes to vulnerable areas worldwide operation formula flights donated by United Airlines will contain over 300,000 pounds of approximately 3.7 million 8 ounce bottles equivalent of Kendermill infant formula and we did a lot of dog or animal transfers when there was the hurricane in Puerto Rico leading the industry with sustainable action and we are doing all this with focus on reducing our carbon footprint through sustainability initiatives that will have a global impact. Our United Adventures division launched a sustainable flight fund investing in many areas like sustainable aviation fuel we purchased more stuff than any other airline this year carbon capture and secretion technologies EV toll, electronic flying taxis to move passengers from city centers and airports in New York, Chicago and LA and we hired Oscar the Grouch as a chief trash office and I think he has an amazing hairstyle so it's good for United Airlines this is not just a marketing story or a marketing tool I think it's our DNA to make sure that we make it a different in the world we flashing our fleet with United Next we also have been investing in the new fleet with better fuel consumption from now until 2032 we expect to receive more than 800 new aircrafts we are adding capacity to existing routes by upsizing our flights regional jets are upsized to mainline narrow bodies which feed our ever expanding international white body flights larger planes will allow us to expand our network from our hubs more passengers more white bodies and what I like more cargo service and more cargo space by 2030 75% of our fleet will be new aircraft every third day for the next 7 or 8 years we will get a new plane every third day we continue to support the military throughout the pandemic and beyond some examples are preboarding for all military and united club access we are the largest mover of US military mail Frankfurt is the biggest mail destination Guam, Marshall islands Hawaii, island hopper location are also important places united delivers military shipments keeping our military families connected with the goods they need and keeping them connected with loved ones to feel a sense of home is of critical importance craft activation the united commitment is on the slide where you can see what our commitment is in the different phases reach across America remember and honor the fallen soldiers every year when there is an activity with reach across America we sponsor we will go there and we also put the reach on the on the graves there united military pilot program is pretty new provide secure landing place for participants while they complete their service to the nation partnership with army pace program provides American soldiers with an opportunity to prepare for career after service to connect with companies like us then we have a business resource group united called united for veterans where we recruit develop and retain thousands of qualified veterans and if you see here on the picture servicemen carrying we were flying a piece of the USS Arizona from Honolulu to Denver I think it was two months ago American flag draped around the crate flew December 7 2022 over Pearl Harbor national memorial in Denver this was taken to the freedom memorial in Aurora where it's placed today as a company that has long supported our military families and veterans our teams are proud to mobilize to lend a hand in short that is what good leads the way for united cargo thank you very much just a appreciation again for I think those were all outstanding presentations I really appreciate the panel here at least sending the baseline so you can tell all those are outstanding organizations that represent the prime anymore outstanding organizations that represent the prime system of this joint logistics enterprise fortunately we do have plenty of time here for questions what I'd like to do is maybe start the first question here and then we'll look to take things from the audience so obviously there's technology there's other pieces that would be interesting to talk about we do talk a lot about procedural policy changes but less about cultural changes to our institution that could be a question for everyone what cultural changes do we need to incorporate into our institutions to be more agile resilient responsive and furthermore to be more inclusive of allies and partners in what we do I'm sure happy to start with that the culture of the US military has typically focused on self-sufficiency that's what we do we fight and win America's wars and we don't try to take a lot of risk and it's taken us a little bit of time to sort of transition into integrated deterrence we need to rely on allies and partners in ways that we never have before we need to practice with them and I think that one of the biggest cultural changes that we need to do is maybe not risk-averse when it comes to allies and partners might be the right way to say it because it is about war and we want to reduce risk but I think we may want to look at more of the opportunities to reduce risk through redundancy and think about the other ways in which we can partner with allies and partners out there in ways that we never thought about before yeah with regard to cultural changes mindset comes to my mind that at least with regard to my task and Ulm and NATO's task with regard to deterrence and defense and that has been achieved after the 24th of February 2022 to create a common approach, a good cohesion one approach one coherent, comprehensive approach in order to counter a threat and I think that is very important to come from that idea that this cohesion also is the center of gravity for successful deterrence and defense and out of this with regard to JSEC's task I see this as really important that we create one comprehensive picture with regard to movement with regard to sustainment with regard to all our aims objectives intentions and so on so that is a comprehensive common approach countering a threat from the east and by this then we are I think capable of creating the conditions and I argue as the commander JSEC so I tried to argue from our challenges which we currently face that we are better enabled to really counter the threats and time requirements and so on so my plea would be that this comprehensiveness, this cohesion is the starting point for a lot of actions and a lot of consequences which have to be developed one comment and maybe from a different angle is cultural change for me being in an international company I learned a lot, we have one strategy to involve all the different cultures that we work with around the world and listen to them get them into the decision making really helped what I found being a Dutch person in the US sometimes it's too much US centered and if you're an international or global company be careful not to be too much in that area and try to open up and that's what I learned over the years and I got the opportunity to work for an American company but also to see the different cultures you have around the world how to tackle them, listen to them get all their feedback in and then with still the common strategy as you also say the common goal but find out with the different entities use different mindsets to come to making the next step that's very very good advice I'm trying to talk so much about an example that when I did 05 or squadron command which is a command we have about 15 to 18 years in the Air Force I did in a place called Papa Air Base Hungary there's a multinational 12 nation every year between which the Netherlands is part of a lot of Eastern European countries and Scandinavian countries but it was there 13-14 years ago when it set up and it was C-17s I think I was hired maybe because I could fly and instruct in C-17s but the leadership there was well one is the organization itself was about 30% US 70% European and so when you come in there from the US frame of reference now that's bad we know how to fly the plane and fix the plane and do that and the organization works is really listening and understanding and realizing it's not a US Air Force organization it's not a Dutch Air Force organization it's a multinational organization which can be better in the end our goal is to be the best airlift squadron in the world and it's high but I think it's someone achievable goal but we could do that and I think we were closer to that because of the richness of having 12 nations and all their experience and an aspect to that but it does require listening and that's a reference to a little bit learning, educating even though I knew some of your organizations from their presentations here it was a better understanding for that maybe another United Airlines or commercial airlines question for unit not to bring up the COVID pandemic but actually I think a broader than just the lessons learned for that obviously United Cargo manages movements and tracking of time critical air freight cold chains shipping medical supplies and other type of shipments across the United States and the world so the question is what emerging technologies or processes for predicting processing tracking this near real-time transit visibility part of it, the others based on the COVID experience in that pandemic which we hope never happens again but could for it's just another level of contested logistics and what technologies or others did you learn maybe to I mean we learned a lot from COVID but to get connected to know exactly where your shipments are that never changed there's also for us no difference between domestic and international because that's important we have an organization a matrix organization that deals with the different products that we have globally all these people are experts close to our customers T.C. towers we call that support towers around the world that are very close the first entrance to our customers to see what is happening we focus a lot of edit value we focus a lot of pharmaceutical shipments we need to see where they are I mean if a human remains or it's other shipments we have to see how it works every station has its operational unit and our lines are very short so yes you need an IT system that we have that's globally linked where we can see always where the shipments are but of course so many things go wrong but then it's the personal interaction that we have that makes the difference close to our customers the fun of cargo is over passage is that although people say cargo doesn't talk but their owners talk a lot so you can play the pipeline game we have 5000 flights a day they're all open for cargo and a shipment that flies for example from Chicago to Frankfurt can go via Brussels Amsterdam, London and whatever it's just the throughput time but to have that connection to make sure that we have the towers connected there with the people make sure that we always know exactly where the shipment is and of course we make mistakes and then try at least to be proactive to our customers to make sure that we have a solution but at least don't wait too long because that also makes it tough and for us domestic or international there's no difference I might I have some more prepared questions but I'd like to check if there's questions from the audience that you're welcome to this question is coming from commercial industry out here in the audience and for anyone on the panel so sometimes big capabilities come in small packages so as you're connecting with your partners you're casting here net wide for those large companies but also how are you capturing those small companies that can give you some pretty agile capabilities so I can talk a little bit about that actually one of the focus areas we have right now is what is good for the United States military and our mission for us to do our things is not necessarily the capabilities the technologies, the systems for allies and partners we fight wars differently than our partners and our problems are different so one of the things that we're doing right now is casting a wider net on what are the opportunities we're partnering with the defense innovation unit and with many of the other parts of the defense innovation ecosystem to say what are the solutions that you may have for allies and partners they may be on the cutting room floor developed for us the United States military but they may have it there and so I would encourage people from industry if you have solutions that again may not be right but because you deal with vendors and technologies and things like that that you think would be appropriate for allies and partners with very different mission sets earlier we saw pictures of the Chinese and the Philippines going up how the Philippines needs to deal with the Chinese right now in the gray zone is very very different than what the US Air Force and the Navy and our military are what they're gearing up for and so they're different capabilities so for example we're partnering with the Joint Intermediate Force capability office the non-lethal folks they don't like to be called that but that's what they are and they have actually solutions that they've been looking at the research and development and working with vendors that the United States military isn't going to buy they're not going to become US programs of record so again I would encourage that the door is open to new and innovative ideas and please bring them in service of allies and partners not just our military yeah maybe from NATO headquarters perspective well this technological progress is very important and it makes probably the difference between our approaches and enemy's approaches with regard to our main challenges which we currently face is interoperability in JSEC we are working very very hard to create this common operational picture so to develop a clear understanding of what is really available who is moving where, why, how and when through corridors through road, railway airways different approaches in order to move huge sides of forces so with regard to this challenge which we have this interoperability is of utmost importance so whenever there is a technological development to be supported but I would be for having a clear eye also on connecting others NATO partners, allies because of our common common goal in order to deter and defend successfully and if there is only one single approach and others not being able to be included in this we as NATO we are definitely going to struggle. We're hearing good news about how the NATO model is being used to address issues throughout that theater are there any ways that we can expand that model into other theaters such as the Indo-Paycom area or are there any efforts on going in that regard? I'll take this if you don't mind I don't want to say that going back to the interoperability actually interoperability which is important in some ways we need interchangeability in some ways we found recently with efforts with Ukraine and others even though there's NATO standards sometimes things aren't quite exactly the same and you need them to be the practice to be I think NATO would expand in Indo-Pacific although NATO nations have a significant role there but when it really comes down to that basic of interoperability of common understanding and practices and things so that's what's helpful in the Indo-Pacific is we have many allies out there from the U.S. perspective just like NATO allies but if we have a NATO standard and we really adhere to that and the fuels interchangeable the process is the same that's the same within NATO and U.S. is part of NATO and NATO works with Japan and bilaterally we're the same there and U.S. works with Republic of Korea and they're the same and then with Australia that interoperability piece becomes very important and this is not just for a competition or a conflict this is for humanitarian assistance disaster relief things are in inches instead of centimeters or just converted how do you get some of those basic things so that's something we look at a lot something I was talking with our staff about prepositioning things around the world and how do we do that and that needs to be strategically thought about but inherent should be this interoperability piece so I think that's there's maybe more to it and I think that's one of the key efforts we're looking at and DSCA plays a big role in that just across the world here's a question there's been a heavy focus on the preparation for war and leveraging allies and partners capabilities the question is when war is not present is there efforts to work together in terms of just the natural order whether it's in NATO or the world in order to leverage those capabilities every day I think we had pre-discussions also yesterday when we had a meeting discussions on how cooperation could be better and we discussed this morning the issues sometimes we have discussions when we are let's say at the far end while we should have discussions at the beginning when it's the most peace time of the year whatever the century let's sit down, let's talk with each other and make sure that when shit hits the fan that we are there to work with each other and sometimes I have the feeling we start too late in doing that and I think that should be somewhere we should start and if it's in a small area or a bigger area we discuss we fly for example we have entrants at government affairs we have all the companies there our forwarding friends or other people that we know where we could help each other with that knowledge that we have and see if something happens that we know how to start and where to start or at least who to contact at a certain stage if I could say we exercise a lot our logistics we're doing that all the time and what it really means when we get done is where our allies and partners need something different or what didn't work and feed that one of the challenges with it is that the J-4s of the world run the logistics enterprise and the J-5s of the world run the security cooperation enterprise the demand signal for what we want from allies and partners and the specifics of it that comes from generally from the J-5 and so there's an opportunity for the J-4s of the world the logistics people to talk to those security cooperation planners and to provide that demand signal so that we in the security cooperation community can learn from your exercises and what you're doing and we can influence allies and partners ultimately they buy what they want to buy in some cases encourage certain things because some of the acquisition folks they are not connected with the people that are doing the actual logistics it's just for the problem of bureaucracies with regard to the question what we don't prepare peacetime we don't have in crisis and therefore we have to use the time now and the second topic in regard to the question is or the second consideration is I think agreeing is not enough so speaking, discussing, agreeing that is very important set the basis where I as commander JSEC currently looking on and pressing also is that we use the time now as general provost also so mentioned the implementation of this agreement that is what we are striving for and we have to strive for so agreeing that is easy in discussions and we are agreeing upon interoperability and that is good but what is important is really the implementation of this interoperability and that's the hard piece and I give you an example we are currently very much looking into this implementation is in Europe reducing the border crossing bureaucracy which is existing that is natural given somehow due to national 70s laws and so on but it is not naturally given in a way that it cannot be changed so we are currently working on this reducing these boundaries which make movements across borders really to a bureaucratic and time consuming challenge and reducing those bureaucracy hurdles is very important from our point of view because it enhances this fluidity which we are looking for with regard to the force movement and so implementation of this topic not starting in crisis it's one example for me would I would answer on this question is where we have to focus more on implementation in an attempt to prioritize development of an effective multinational logistics framework toward assured access capacity and capability what is the panel's recommended military priority to action today and what should be prioritized for other elements of national power? I guess I'll take that quite a few things on the list I'd say one is and this is very good having someone from the commercial industry who I think you can see yourself very well that's how you do well in your business to do that I think what we have a problem is we don't know ourselves that common understanding picture which is common operating picture which is really based on data and sharing and be able to do that I think collectively first to do that we have to know ourselves and those efforts are ongoing and then it's the relationships the interoperability within the joint staff in the joint war fighting concept there's a joint concept for contested logistics based on ways to overcome these challenges an effort that we're working within our joint staff team which is included with our multinational partners in particular 5I partners from New Zealand Australia, Canada, UK and building with NIDO as well as a multinational concept for contested logistics not that the concept will be concepts will be so different but it's the perspective of doing this with allies and partners and the common operating concept for contested logistics was made it was made understanding how important allies and partners but it was a US developed thing that we developed and then share with our allies and say hey this is where you'd be great to do and they're like that's nice but this is how we would do it so I think in doing that we are looking and this is an effort here that builds on that multinational piece of things that we're actually taking action on with regard to our focus this common recognised picture which Leo you just mentioned very important we currently build a reinforcement sustainment network how we call it so that is not only roads, railways, seaways harbours and so on but also this functional layer this functional necessities which are to be described like those border crossing regulations contract everything in place so if necessary we can switch easily from into a deterrence mode more easily and not with with time delay and so on and thirdly we have to at least in Europe we have to get used to the assessment that first we might not have the support dominance at least in a certain stage of a situation of operation secondly our lines of communication our networks, our infrastructure will be targeted so this contested environment what does that really mean not only for the forces deployed front line but also the strategic base and what does that really mean with regard to resilience creating a robust and agile system so that nevertheless we as military feel ourselves comfortable with this situation and we can support the forces in a reliable way in a multinational environment in a complex multi domain operational effort wherever the operational commanders might so three priorities I would say clear picture, RSN and contested logistics contested environment and having all the necessary means and on hand in order to successfully support the fighting wherever and however needed. This question is for Jan from the audience so if we need additional capability are you able to leverage your allies and partners in commercial industry whether it's your star alliance or others to grab greater capability and greater capacity? Yes I mean it depends but in principle from our side all willingness and then to see how the partners or JV partners join venture partners that can support but I think it's for the good cause we always say yes no problem I think. Gentlemen what advancements in technology are you looking for to enhance our collective capabilities to meet global delivery both in peacetime and in wartime? Maybe I can share from the joint staff a lot of this goes with the data and the common operating picture of course but we often in the J4 that we we need 21st century technology for 21st century problems and if you go back to certain evacuation operations in Afghanistan or some other things initially what happens crisis like that it happens but you wind up going back to drawing boards or talk boards or excel spreadsheets and how do we leverage the cutting edge technology to be able to do that so one is to be able to see ourselves and be able to have those AI kind of enabled or facilitated decision tools to help senior leaders to be able to visualize where things are visualize if you had to move things around you can imagine the challenge right now supporting obviously everyone knows what's Ukraine supporting efforts in the Middle East supporting still ongoing efforts that we just normal training and other stuff in the Indo-Pacific but alone Africa, South America that's a lot of capacity that's needed and usually just being a mobility pilot and being in this business long enough there's of course everyone wants to get their stuff as fast as they can there's just never enough in particular now but how do we be able to visualize that be able to include allies and partners and that partner I think is really that commercial capacity although with Transcom they're very good hence this partnership here with NDTA but sometimes in the military or US we just initial reactions what do we have what can I do myself which usually isn't enough but you start expanding allies partners commercial aspects what they could do and having that real dialogue so not last minute hey can you help us but bringing them in early on the planning to be able to understand capacity at the front end if you have that and know that that will help a lot I would just note that information technology is only good as the information that are in the databases that are there and oftentimes we forget that if we are within the Department of Defense or allies and partners aren't putting accurate data into what they have or what they can do in there and it's shareable it's all the information technology machine learning in the world won't make a difference I would like to support that 100% we are currently working on this operating picture and using lock fast NATO system functional error system for logistics we are currently struggling because not everyone uses this very baseline system and therefore this technological progress is important but it has a lot to do with as I also said interoperability that all the data inside the system make the difference and if there are black boxes or areas from NATO point of view where you don't have an idea upon the newest technologies is not of help so we I think we need a good baseline and good solid basis and based on that then new technology artificial intelligence supported and so on with regard to better decision making processes and so on I could imagine that but we have to focus on this baseline from NATO perspective this baseline common data sharing in order to have this common recognized picture that is of utmost importance and there we are currently struggling honestly time for more questions okay one of the members of the audience mentioned the EU PESCO project I think what they are referring to is how are you creating a framework with such diverse interests and diverse countries across Europe in order to create that common goal yeah we as JSEC we are an operational headquarter so our focus is on supporting the operational commanders with regard to their plan their regional plans which are ready to support them that they are executable so we don't work on the strategic political level that is not our focus first thing second yeah definitely in Europe the PESCO project military mobility is a project I think 27 nations European nations are a member of this project being chaired by the Netherlands and there is also progress to be considered the question now is how do all those developments which are considered in this project refer to or fit into these regional planning and all the efforts taken on the European side do not hamper in a different direction focused in a different direction on NATO planning there are political limitations with regard to exchange of information between two organizations EU and NATO we have to consider that we cannot do to members being not part of EU or not being part of NATO simply exchange and provide the EU and NATO plans and vice versa that is not possible but and that is where we are currently working on to we have the authority to liaise directly with the European Union the PESCO project and we also speak with the individual European nations in order to align all the efforts in a way so that the support of the PESCO project is also something which fits into the regional planning processes so that we cooperate and coordinate I don't know whether that's the right terminology but at least not hampering each other but aligning those efforts that is where we are currently working on and we are making progress in this regard this question comes out of some of our transportation academy sessions it deals with startles with sea lifts but is asking so what's the coordination between the United States and allies and partners when the US has shortcomings and someone needs to fill in the gap how does that process work and how do those conversations occur to make sure that we have the full capabilities as we go into conflict together for a lot of those discussions are going on in the geographic combatant command so Indo Pacific command, Central command others from the joint staff perspective we are looking across much like transcom about our allies and partners and capabilities and so there are various forms with 5i partners as I mentioned with NATO and collective logistics piece but some of it becomes understanding what capabilities they have and then having that discussion that plan to be able to do it whether sea lift or air lift and there are organizations like that definitely for air lift in Europe where there is almost a time share trading movement coordination center in Eindhoven so those conversations are happening but I think even more so we need to rely on our partners whether they are involved with the plan early on to understand that capability the point that we are working now not just whether we can use the transportation piece but also the maintenance repair and overhaul and so an effort I have been working with off-secure defense of the defense for sustainment Chris Lohman is on a regional strategic plan but looking at regional maintenance repair and overhaul locations Australia, Japan, Europe the idea is if you have ship repair you have a fighter plane or another plane that needs repairs to think that in a contingency or crisis you are going to have to fly that thing or ship it all the way back there is just not time how do we have that capacity with allies and partners how do we build that capacity that it is there that we are using it all the time and it has that which allows it excess capacity and actual crisis to be able to to surge to be able to do that and this is from any kind of equipment or it was part of that because it was we need to think through because it is not just having that ship go but it is in the sustained kind of conflict or protracted crisis how we fix and sustain and do that to include technologies things like advanced manufacturing and others where we can actually print parts instead of having to ship them because to be able to ship them we just don't have the airlift or not able to because of the contested environment or other priorities or complex topic in crisis and conflict in order to really set the stage in a way that for example division can be moved across an ocean into the theater and then be moved on land lines of communication to the location where required and for this purpose the interaction the liaison the interaction between the involved nations first second the interaction with the responsible commanders joint level, joint force commanders and also the theater component commanders land, air and maritime all are involved in this complex movements or have to be involved otherwise this operation will not work and this interaction has to be pre-planned and the stage for that is has to be set therefore the interaction on liaison elements exchange of that and having established a close network is of high importance so that this complex operation in regard with a very short time frame available 10 days and so can be successfully conducted a lot of preparation has to be done and this liaison exchange of plans this common understanding is really important in order to support Leo what you just said hey Leo can I inject here a little bit as I sit in the audience and I look and based on my experience and my experience in NATO and with DSEA and with industry and what not things have changed over the last 10 years and I guess I would ask from NATO's perspective what's changed from DSEA's perspective what has changed and by change I mean progress I've elevated our war fighting capability what has changed for you Jans in cargo and your ability to move around my sense is that things have changed and we're on a better footing because I'll let the general answer but NATO has they're on a war footing now whereas before we didn't even have plans we weren't allowed to plan and cooperate with nations so can you talk about that a little bit and then DSEA you know things used to take years to do something I know darn well it's probably changed you know and Jans you might have a few comments as well so general first thank you for the question and what you just mentioned I think that is exactly the trigger also for change because we have plans and when I say we have plans that is right and wrong at the same time because that is a process iterative process mentioned regional plans joint operations areas Atlantic being commanded from Norfolk joint force command northwest southern area in Mediterranean and the northern bands in northern Africa plan being made in joint force command Naples and center central European region responsibly drafted by joint force command Brunsum those three joint operations areas have their plan how to react how exactly to deter and defend NATO alliance territory and in order to deter successfully it is of utmost importance that all the preconditions are really there it has a lot to do with credibility this deterrence we are not prepared and therefore we have to push this focus on peacetime and now that we create the condition for credible defense and that means we have to do everything in order to make those plans executable and that is a lot of work still to be done and I think with regard to this question this list of what has to be done is currently in development and we have a clear very good let's say understanding of what has to be done that's a very long list and that focuses all the efforts on credibility with regard to executability of the so I'd say four things one scale when Jim Hirsch the current director of DSEA came as an action officer years ago we were doing about $6 billion in government to government arms transfers not including direct commercial sales we've been averaging somewhere in the $48 to $50 billion over the last few years and numbers haven't been released yet but it will be significantly higher and that's just overall and then scale within speed which is the next thing speed the amount of time that we have to turn things and provide the imperative to get things into the hands of Taiwan and other folks quickly whether it be the munitions today and things like that or at least a shorter time for places like Taiwan intent it used to be we did arms transfers for overflight we just it was a political objective and we really focused in the last years about no partners actually need capabilities and we've learned what happens when we don't actually get them the capabilities that they need the capabilities that they can absorb, apply and sustain it's a lesson learned from Afghanistan and Iraq and places like that but it's just as important when we talk about other allies and partners that are out there and finally focus you know as the DSCA I'll be honest I transitioned from OSD policy to DSCA with the idea that maybe I'd get out of the secretaries line of sight on a regular basis boy that was a poor decision on my part really this focus on allies and partners in the last two national defense strategies is really a sea change and I think that it's only going to grow in intent and focus well with all that equipment flowing around we have a lot of companies willing to move in I'll keep it short I think what changed over the years is the cooperation the maturing of the cooperation the communication the way we get to work closer the way we open up to each other better get involved we're not out there yet I think we still can do much better but that's what being in this role but also different roles in this community and I think that really changed over the years that it really matured and it can still be better but I think that's on the right track there ladies and gentlemen let's thank our panel let me real quick now you know I like I said I've seen things change the NATO a lot has changed the war footing has really become more operational you know before it was just like the general said we would talk about it but now he's in the middle of implementing it and I'm really pleased to see that let's see right now we are going to head off for in excuse me