National Guard Leaders Emphasize Value of State Partnership Program

ARLINGTON, Va. – The adjutants normal from California, Florida, Nebraska and Vermont mentioned the worth of the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program throughout a media roundtable June 2.

The true value of the SPP has been evident in latest months all through the Russia-Ukraine battle, stated Army Maj. Gen. David Baldwin, the adjutant normal of the California National Guard.

“Because we’ve had that partnership with Ukraine for going on 29, almost 30 years now, we’ve been working pretty intensely since 2014 to develop combat capacity,” stated Baldwin. “The proof is in the pudding in the performance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

The National Guard has solid enduring partnerships by way of the SPP since 1993 to assist construct U.S. and companion capability to satisfy Twenty first-century safety challenges. The SPP originated to help international locations rising from behind the Iron Curtain. It now entails 45% of the world’s international locations and the National Guard of each U.S. state and territory.

Baldwin stated the relationships California Guard Soldiers and Airmen have established with Ukrainian counterparts by way of this program have confirmed invaluable.

“We participate in a daily video teleconference with the Joint Staff in the Pentagon and with United States European Command,” he stated. “Often, the Ukrainians will share information with us that they don’t share through more formal channels because we have those personal relationships.”

However, the shut bonds the National Guard has constructed with Ukraine usually are not restricted to the California Guard. In early 2022, Soldiers with the Florida National Guard have been in Ukraine coaching with Joint Multinational Training Group Ukraine members earlier than the Russian invasion.

“Many of our Guardsmen have remained in contact with their Ukrainian counterparts, exchanging text messages and videos,” stated Air Force Maj. Gen. James O. Eifert, adjutant normal of the Florida National Guard. “They’ve seen how the work that they have done has paid off in actual technical engagements with the Russians.”

These relationships are made potential by way of the SPP and the continuity the Guard gives, Eifert stated.

“Stability makes the National Guard uniquely suited to conduct these partnership missions,” he stated. “Guardsmen typically remain in their states during their entire term of service, unlike our active-duty brethren who move every few years. This constancy creates trust through long-term associations that last decades.”

Along with Ukraine, the National Guard is partnered with 23 European nations, together with 14 NATO allies. Eifert stated the battle in Ukraine has bolstered the NATO coalition, with a concentrate on constructing and strengthening partnerships.

“I think one of the outcomes of the invasion of Ukraine is it has really rallied the NATO alliance and our allies and partners in ways we haven’t seen in a while,” he stated.

Army Maj. Gen. Gregory Knight, Vermont’s adjutant normal, stated a key focus of the SPP has been interoperability, demonstrated by the Vermont National Guard offering F-35 help to the NATO Air Policing mission in Europe.

“Working with our NATO allies on aviation platforms, (it’s) an incredibly detailed level of training,” he stated.

While the main target of the SPP has been military-to-military techniques exchanges, Knight stated the Vermont National Guard is pursuing an entire of society method to its partnerships with North Macedonia, Senegal, and one of the newest additions to the SPP, Austria, respectively.

“Recently, I hosted the Austrian minister of defense in Vermont,” he stated. “We met with the governor and held a business roundtable. There were a lot of discussions on renewable energy and things that had nothing to do with the military. But that’s really the foundational element that will start the partnership. And there’s just huge potential for it to grow from there.”

State Partnership Program engagements happen with international locations worldwide, with National Guard components paired with companion nations in each geographic combatant command. The Florida Guard is addressing ongoing safety threats, “like human trafficking, illegal drugs and arms trade, and countering China’s growing global influence in our own hemisphere,” inside the Caribbean, stated Eifert.

This 12 months alone, the National Guard has assisted U.S. Southern Command in engaging in theater marketing campaign aims by conducting 30 engagements in eight international locations, with one other 12 scheduled this fiscal 12 months. These exchanges embrace small-unit safety, maritime search and rescue, noncommissioned officer management improvement, public affairs, small-unit patrolling, logistics and sustainment, and cyber safety.

One of the weather that units U.S. army forces aside from potential peer and near-peer adversaries is the event and utility of the noncommissioned officer corps – a requirement of NATO membership and a part of many state partnership actions, stated Air Force Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac, TAG for the Nebraska National Guard.

The Nebraska Guard has labored carefully with the Texas National Guard to develop an NCO corps in shared companion Czech Republic’s armed forces. “They are a full NATO member and actively participating in the support of Ukrainian armed forces in their counter efforts against the evasion of threats,” Bohac stated.

While shut ties in Europe have been reaffirmed by latest occasions, Eifert stated the sky is the restrict for the State Partnership Program to increase and evolve.

“The bang for the buck that you get out of this program to grow, it seems like a no brainer to me, especially given the impact it has directly on our National Defense Strategy,” he stated.

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