it's not just amare time problem, because they are built in the jungeles in columbia, they acquire the assets and they are commercially available assets and they arrive somewhere off the coast of central america and transfer the goods there. it's an expensive proposition to try and find them, follow them, detect them as they work through the maritime environment, requires a lot of assets to maintain that. our focus is on where they are built and where they arrive to address the problem with trying to detect them and then intercept them when we do find them in the maritime environment. >> i presume this is a collaborative effort with the host countries that are not doing it with their permission, but they are doing it in columbia and other places and you are working closely with their intelligence services to do that? >> yes, it's a great collaboration, we rely on great enforcement communities, they address this issue in their territory and we collaborate as with well. >> you know, one of the consequences of our active commitment in our theaters is overhead and other isr factors do you have support in this area to support these construction projects in the jungels and pinpoint them he early on, or is that a -- them early on? >> we are continuing to look at capacity that can look through triple canopy, jungles that is what we aring lo we are looking and so i am comfortable, senator. >> can you comment on the soon to be expangz of the panama cank can canal, in terms of your operation. they are going to begin a transit with a new canal which is a huge, huge change to sea born transportation, not just in your area but worldwide, do you have any specific insights? >> senator, you are correct, 2014 is the scheduled time line and the panama cankcanal author is focused achieving that goal. the amount of commercial activity will increase. we on annual basis conduct an exercise called panamax, which is an international exercise, 18 nations participated last year. the it support -- it supports the government of panama and the canal, we will continue those efforts as we watch the expansion as it relates to pa a pana panama, oexercises will remain critical to that effort. >> there's another emerging corridor and that is the arctic ocean and given your ements and your day-to-day coordination with the authorities, the navy is predicting in some cases sort of at least one or two months of transit by 2020 of commercial ships through the arctic which opens up questions of environment aal response and search and rescue. where are we in that endeavor. >> t that area is a unique domain and we work with the canadians how they are planning for that environment. they are working on three, five-year blocks towards the same things we are considering. today, admiral pap and i will sign a white paper that we have done a capabilities gap assessment, principally in the areas of communications, domain awareness, infrastructure, and presence and what we will recommend for the future that might lead to prudent investments to position us for that opening of the artic, traffic has increased since 20 0 2008. and drilling will be starting prior to the close of the spring. so security interests follow closely behind economic interests and we will be participating in a number of venues to help lead that for the department of defense. >> many of my colleagues touched on the issue of cybersecurity and strategic command has assets within your ao missile silos, i presume, bases, etetcetera, you have the norad system, have you and strategic command or individually done an vulnerability answer upon your dependance on civilian systems that are less secure than the military systems? >> skrenator, yes we have and w have comprised those extensively and red teamed to that regard. >> are you confident that you can continue to respond to the marshal command authority in a situation, a cyber attack or any other that would go after, not directly yo lly your installati? >> i believe our network is secure. >> and operate if the civilian networks are compromised and go down? >> i believe so, senator, but as you mow, there's great -- as you know, there's great connectness, so there will be second and third attacks on the sieb system. but coordinationing to our core area, we are ads yetly defended, but village lens will be required, the cyber enemies continue to advance approximate in their capabilities and have demonstrated an intent to conduct malicious activity on our nets. >> just a fine, my time is expi expired, can you operate in an environment under which the worst case environment is that all of these civilians networks have gone down and you have to go back to, you know, getting on the telephone, maybe that is the work, if it is, like a land line or sending a messenger? i do not want to be too simple, but sometimes we have become so depending on auto computer technology and gps, etcetera, do you exercise to the point where it's worst case, where you have to rely on old fashion technology like people driving a car and getting out an order? >> that is a great question, that is exactly what we comprised in november and i will tell you that it is very painful but doable and takes on long time to recovery -- to recover your network. it takes a long time to put it back up. >> thank you mr. chairman, thank you general fraser and general jacoby for your service and general fraser thank you for all that you've done for our country. certainly, we will miss having you around here and testifying before our committee. general fraser, i wanted to ask you, in your written testimony, you described the role of russia in the south-com in the region and said their presence is centered on arms sales is that correct? >> yes. >> and their arms sales are to venezue venezuela? >> the main purchaser is venezuela but they are he will issi i -- but they are selling on other countries. >> is it is. >> for last year, yes, ma'am. >> there also, they are selling arp arm s to cuba? >> yes, ma'am. >> nicaragua? >> yes, ma'am. not the most enlightened rumors in your area of jurisdiction, are they. >> they have been putting pressure to democratic checks and balances in those areas. >> unfortunately this is part of a pattern for russia, this is something that we had before the committee last week, we are deeply concerned about that and that is russia's role to selling arms to syria even as the bloodshed continues there. in fact the state controlled russian company, it's an export company, continues to provide the syrian government with weapons and i just want to take this opportunity, if you look at the pattern here, in addition with russian obstructionism, with efforts to strengthening iran, this is a troubling, troubling pattern. when it comes to syria, i want to say this, that i have -- i was proud to join my colleagues in writing a letter to secretary panetta, regarding the outrage of the russian arm sales, in fact to syria, my senators and yesterday, on you are secretary of state, secretary clinton sparred with a representative from the russian government and she said rightly so, and i stand by our secretary of state in saying this. that russia was standing silent as assad kills his own people. i would go further, in my old profession, if you know someone is killing someone, and committing murder, like the assad regime is doing with their own people and you knowingly provide them with arms, you are not just standing silent is, you are an acomplice with those killings. i want to take this opportunity to express my outrage that russia is providing arms to these regimes and one that is killing its own people and i hope that russia stops this and that they should come forward and be a member of the international community to support sanctions against syria. so, thank you for giving me the opportunity now to could that. and again, i would hope they stop selling arms to people like chavez a as well as their enter actions with cuba. i want to ask you both about the national guard and in particular our state partnership program, general fraser, the guard in new hampshire had a strong state partnership program in the southern command with el salvador. can you let us know what you think is the value of the state partnership program and also what your view is on particular the partnership between the guard in new hampshire and the program in el salvador, and how does it help our national interest? >> i am supporter of the state partnership. one of the value that it brings is that guard members stay in our units longer than active duty members do. that provides the ability to form a deeper relationship with the countries. it is a critical long-term partnership building capacity that we see. new hamp hishire has a close connection and helps to build their budgeting capacity and just a good approximate relationship back and forth between the two partners. >> is this an effective use of our resource in terms of building partnerships? >> it's a very effective tool. the other benefit that we gain from the state partners is because of their civilian jobs they have opportunities to share our experience that goes beyond military experience when that can be authorized. >> general you canjacoby, you w add to that? >> it's a efficient use of resources, it's consistency over time, it helps us broaden and deepen our relationships around the borld. >> and i was -- around the world. and i was struck in your written testimony, general jacoby, how you talked about how the national guard is a natural partner in all that we do is the language that you use, as we look at the challenging time in terms of the prospect of unfortunately not only the cuts that the department is facing now, and on top of it, sequestration, how important is it that we not only maintain the active duty and resources for that in terms of training and for our guard as well? >> senator, the guard is our natural partner, they functions in all of my mission statements. >> and i should include the reserves too. >> and thanks to the congress, reserves can function in defense support to civil authorities. it makes sense, you know, we saw problems locally and the guard is available fast and efficient in that way, so, from defending the homeland to supporting civil authorities to helping us with some of our engagements with the countries in this aor, guard is an important partner to us. >> did you want to add anything further? >> i think we are in agreement here that the state partnership program, we work and heavily defend on the national guard in our engagement not only with our partners but as we work within our headquarters and within our capacity to provide exercise support and other capacities so across the board, we rely heavily on the national guard as well as reserves to conduct the mission. >> thank you both. >> thank you, senator, thank you? >> thank you very much, general fraser, general jacoby, good to see you. i feel like i'm in alaska right now as you are both up there commandsing operations. it's great to be back in a forum where we are all three here. thank you very much. let me first start if i can, general jacoby, we had a brief meeting last week in regards to alaska command. i guess the general description or discussion is, can you tell me, from your perspective, the value of alaska command in regards to the connection with northern command or north-com, can you give me a sense of how that plays? of cour of course i'm biassed and hope it's a good answer. >> when i was the commander, the commandser was doug fraser and commanded brilliantly. so it was valuable. alaska's unique strategic significance to the country and now even more so as our gaze turns toward the arctic, i believe it requires a three-star command and a joint command and so, i think that al-com remains relevant and important to the defense of the homeland. many, many tasks that are -- that take place in alaska are tasks that support north-com and norad in our home land defense role. and to support civil authorities through jtf alaska, very important to norad and norcom, not only norcom but pack com too, and even though you are southern commands, general fraser, maybe you can respond? >> we have had a good relationship with pacific command. but, and they have important equities in the strategic significance of alaska, however as the norad commander and north com commander, i probably occupy 80% to 85% of the al-com commandser's time. >> let me ask you this, and senator reed was leading into that and i think you said today that admiral of the gap analysis or resources that may be needed. first off, is the analysis, i'm assuming it's a long-terminals of what really will be needed there to make our presence known there and my sense is by you signing that agreement, you believe -- i'm putting these words in your mouth but you can correct me -- that this kind of agreement in the future of the arctic is going to be another piece of the equation to our military positioning. is that a fair statement? >> senator, yes, it is. and admiral papp and i share great interest in the arctic. of course, we need to move forward with some consensus of what are the capabilities that will be required and the implications for what are the prudent investments that should be made. so we have an opportunity while we watch the arctic begin to open up to get ahead of potential security requirements and to that end, working closely with the coast guard, united states navy, other partners in the department of defense and the department of homeland security, and also staying tied close thrly to the canadians is right framework to be working in now. >> one statistic i'll use, i think it came from the coast guard alaska, and that is a few years ago you would maybe see 50 ships moving through the bering sea and now close to 1,000. with the arctic, i think seven last year, now 34. in one year alone. so it's moving in a rapid pace of activity up there. we know our friends from china and russia are very interested, china in our land, as i would say, curious about their efforts and so again, your gap analysis, will that also then be utilized as you moved forward in your long-term budget planning of how these pieces fit in and where you need to allocate assets? >> yes, senator. i think that's an important first step with our closest partners to look at the gaps and particularly in how you communicate, how you see and understand what infrastructure we may need, and what kind of continued presence you might require in the arctic. we come to a consensus on that and then we help inform our integrated priority lists and our scientific integrated priority lists so that we can influence budgets over time through our components to the services. so that's the start of the process. we received this responsibility in the latest unified command plan update and i'm happy to say we're moving out on it. >> thank you very much. let me if i can, general fraser, first off, thank you for your long-term service in your career. i know you'll be missed but i know you have been an incredible asset for this country. let me ask you a couple questions about southern command. first is kind of a general comment, as we move down the path with the panama canal going into out of our control to a certain extent and predominantly out of total control. do we have any worry as we worry about commercial lanes in somalia with piracy, do we have any worry over the long haul what may happen in that region? i know it's kind of an odd question but when you're from alaska and you deal with fisheries, we hate pirates. when you're thinking of somalia, we hate pirates. i'm thinking of panama. what's their ability to manage that? >> the government of panama and the panama canal authority are doing a great job of managing the panama canal. it's efficient, it's effective and it's a big income provider for the government of panama. we don't see any indications right now of any piracy on either end of the panama canal. it is an area that we continue to watch. >> also, we had great conversations when the hurricane went through haiti and we talked on the phone. tell me kind of how southern command is continuing to prepare and be ready for those kind of responses for natural disasters. give me a sense. that was kind of the first one that's pretty significant that i as a member of the senate was kind of seeing southern command respond to. give me your thoughts on that, how we're prepared for other natural disasters in the region. >> we remain very deliberately prepared. the hurricane season is obviously our number one concern because that happens on an annual basis and we can predict that. we have a deliberate plan that we have developed post-haiti, revised our disaster response plan. it's a graduated plan depending on what the needs of any request would be. we continue to exercise that on an annual basis as we look at the hurricane season, we prepare for that not only within our headquarters but with our partners in the region and we work directly associated with haiti with the government of haiti to be able to respond should a hurricane impact them during the hurricane season. >> so you have, this is my last comment because my time has expired, but you have designed after going through that experience, you have seen some areas of improvement and some areas that were successful and trying to work off that in expanding kind of the preparation at different levels depending on the severity of the natural disaster, is that a fair statement? >> senator, it is a fair statement, to include normally we don't have the authority to spend d.o.d. dollars outside of a 72-hour emergency response capacity. associated with haiti specifically, we have requested and received authority from the department of defense for up to $3 million just so that we can start that process and respond on a rapid basis. >> very good. thank you very much. thanks to both of you. like i said, it's good to see -- i consider you alaskans. thank you both for your service. >> thank you, senator. senator brown? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i had the honor of meeting both of you. i appreciate you taking the time to come to the office and kind of address a lot of my questions. i just had a follow-up. obviously what senator ayotte said about the state participation program, i went to paraguay and found paraguay and other places where we don't have a lot of money but we through the partnership program, can get good value for our dollar and it's something i know state has an interest in. i want to keep it right where it is so we can continue to train and use it as an asset, so thank you for that support and obviously, general fraser, thank you for your service and support as well. general jacoby, i was wondering if you could expand for a minute on your comments regarding defense support to civil authorities with respect to counter drug operations and with respect to natural and man-made disasters. can you just expound on that just a touch? >> thank you, senator. we had a great initiative last year with the dual status commander. i mentioned it in my opening statement. and we had an opportunity to test that in a way that we haven't done in the past this year in august with hurricane irene. i'm really proud to report as a team that the very first opportunity we had to employ dual status commanders, we did, and put four dual status commanders in position with their title ten deputies just as was the intent of congress and the council of governors. that program is alive and well. it made a lot of sense and now we're going to continue to grow that and look at ways to employ dual status commanders in both the regional and biological, chemical, nuclear event. big progress. i'm also working with the reserve forces with both the air force and the army to take advantage of the authorization that we now have to involuntary activation of the reserves to support civil authority. makes a tremendous sense. there's huge capacity in the reserves, distributed around the country and that was a great move that we are continuing to work on. >> i know there is an instance where there was a tornado or hurricane and the reserve unit was right there and they couldn't respond. it made really no sense whatsoever. >> i think we fixed that one, senator. thank you. >> and talking about the dual status commanders, how is that training going? so you're satisfied we're on track, it's going to be something that's viable for the future? >> senator, with the april class,e have trained at least two dual sta commanders for every state, and that's huge. so there's always one in the queue and we'll keep that training course going -- >> how long is that course? >> it's about a two-week course but it dovetails with another course, the joint task force commanders course. so it actually builds on previous no just a certified dual status commandern and north-com folks that have worked together, studied the problem and have pushed out the horizons on how we use dual status commander. >> it may not be a bad idea to actually start it in the lower levels, the lower ranks, just something to keep their eye on as we're going along. integrated earlier in the training cycle. general fraser, the foreign influence in your aor and how this affects your operation, i noted senator ayotte's comments on russia. what about the role of china? can you comment on that based on your experience? >> senator, china is very engaged in the region as well. they're primarily from a diplomatic and commercial and economic standpoiney're very mu. they're now the leading trading partner with brazil, with chile, with peru. they're also expanding into military to military relations. they've had over the last two years over 20 high level visits to various countries within the

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