capability in the region, adding flexibility and the requisite firepower and command and control during the first days of a military operation. Qatar has provided the land and services required to beddown the second brigade set and is supportive of the strategic basis for the program. With the first and second phase of our military construction (MILCON) requirements funded, we need your support to complete the remainder of the storage site. To ensure the readiness of equipment and supplies in storage, such as the Air Force's Harvest Falcon sets and the Army's brigade sets, we need your continuing assistance in financing refurbishment and sustainment. Theater Missile Defense

The proliferation of ballistic and cruise missiles and technology related to the development of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons prescribes the need for an advanced theater missile defense architecture. Emphasis should be on establishing a "multilayered", near leak-proof missile defense over the next 10 years that handles lower and upper tier requirements on land and sea. In addition, we need to field a highly mobile missile defense to be positioned well forward to protect dispersed, rapidly moving Army and Marine ground forces. This system must also be able to defend against cruise and short range tactical ballistic missiles. To tie these various systems together, we need to improve our theater missile defense (TMD) fused awareness. Doing so will ensure effective flow of information among intelligence assets, decision making facilities, warning systems, and attack means.

Strategic Lift

Strategic lift remains essential to the implementation of USCENTCOM's strategy. To maintain a modern fleet of aircraft and ships, we should stay on track in acquiring 120 C-17's, 19 Large Medium-Speed Roll-On/Roll-Off (LMSŘ) ships, and five additional RO/ROS for the Ready reserve Force (RRF) to meet the MRS goal of 36. In terms of broader sealift requirements, we must continue to fund enhancements to the Ready Reserve Fleet, Maritime Prepositioning Force, and Fast Sealift Ship maintenance program. Enhancements of strategic lift also requires support for Joint Total Asset Visibility, Joint Logistics over the Shore, and strategic aeromedical evacuation. Together, these systems provide the means for the U.S. to meet demanding deployment schedules during crisis response.

WMD Protective Measures

Given the mid- and long-term nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) dangers, we must advance programs to limit the vulnerability of our forces. This includes funding for and stockpiling of upgraded protective clothing; antidotes and vaccines; medical supplies; and wide area passive defense capabilities to detect, categorize, and warn against NBC use. We must also continue to pursue improvements in NBC protection for large area troop concentrations, airfields, and seaports.

Theater Force Protection

To address the terrorist threat in the region, we must continue construction upgrades and modifications to facilities and perimeters to withstand various types of attack. To gain early warning of impending strikes and to facilitate retaliatory responses, we need to enhance our intelligence and counterintelligence resources. Finally, we need to improve overall protection by fielding a new generation of detection devices and sensors and damage mitigation technologies as part of a comprehensive, integrated force protection technology enhancement program. Stand-off Strike Capabilities

Conducting the high-tempo joint and combined operations envisioned in the Central Region and defeating ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction requires that we achieve air superiority early in a conflict. This requires the use of an assortment of capabilities that can hit various types of targets, such as hardened command and control bunkers, logistic storage sites, dispersed armored formations, and SCUD missile launchers. To do this, we need to continue to improve current aerial resources, procure multi-role/advanced systems, and acquire associated precision guided munitions. On the ground, we need to offer tactical commanders the ability to strike high priority targets quickly and accurately by modernizing field artillery, fielding equipment that takes advantage of digitization of systems, and procuring a new family of long-range, smart munitions. At sea, we need to enhance fire support and obtain the next generation of cruise missiles. Your support for these improvements and others proposed by the Services will allow USCENTCOM to exploit American technological advantages in long-range, precision munitions to mitigate the friction and fog of war to counter a broad range of threats.

Sea Combat

Fundamental to accomplishing our mission is our ability to secure freedom of navigation through narrow waterways and choke points. To do this, we must enhance mine countermeasures, fleet protection, amphibious and littoral warfare, and naval command and control. We are particularly interested in obtaining a third surface mine countermeasure ship in the region. In addition, we support procurement of LPD-17 to provide a more robust and versatile ARG/MEU (SOČ) capability in the region.

Combat Identification and Counter-Fratricide

The demands of waging high-density, fast-tempo operations in the region make it imperative that we proceed more quickly in developing and acquiring the hardware and process-oriented improvements to facilitate accurate combat identification in ground-to-ground and air-to-ground activities.

Theater Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C41) Infrastructure

The limited communications infrastructure in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility and the Command's positioning in the continental U.S. poses significant command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (CAI) challenges. As such, we need a robust and flexible C4I architecture that allows us to effectively and securely gather, process, distribute and display, and communicate information of all types and classification levels to users at numerous decision-making levels. Satellite communications are particularly important to these efforts, offering vital strategic and tactical capabilities that extend between the continental U.S. and the theater. Resource constraints mandate we move away from dedicated point-to-point circuits and specifically designated computers and optimize the capabilities of distributed network systems. Network management, education, training, and threat awareness are among our most cost effective measures to enhance network security. We will also need to invest in specialized security tools, such as "firewalls" and automated intrusion detection capabilities. We must improve our ability to manage data of all security levels over common public-switched networks. In this context, the DOD Multilevel Information System Security Initiative (MISSI), which is linked to enhancements in commercial technology, shows great promise in evolving our security solutions.

Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

USCENTCOM's ability to continuously monitor and assess threat activities is an essential element of early warning of impending conflict. Meeting this need means exploiting the full range of intelligence capabilities to include human intelligence (HUMINT), imagery (IMINT), space-based, tactical signals (SIGINT), interoperable information processing systems, and robust communications connectivity. Equally important for supporting the full range of contingencies is increased national collection support, continued modernization of airborne reconnaissance systems, and the fielding of a family of dedicated Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. These and other enhancements will provide more responsive intelligence to commanders in the field, to include a near, real-time snapshot of events.

International Military Education and Foreign Military Financing

As I have consistently asserted during the last 3 years, the U.S. has benefited enormously from investments made over the years in the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program and Foreign Military Financing (FMF). These programs have provided the U.S. Government opportunities to assist friendly states in meeting legitimate self-defense needs, gain access, deter conflict, and promote stability and democratic ideals. Many of the officers participating in the IMET program rise to become key leaders in their nations' governments and defense establishments... and we deal with them daily and during crisis. By promoting respect for human rights, civilian control of the military, and democratic ideals, while enhancing self-defense capabilities, we reduce instability that produces regional conflicts and the associated need to commit forces to protect U.S. national interests.

CONCLUSION

As we consider our current and future activities in the Central Region, we should note the enormous progress we have made over the past decade. In a part of the world of vital importance to our nation, we have confronted major threats to our vital interests and have made great strides in achieving the broader strategic aims of engagement and enlargement. Such achievements stem, in large part, from the first-rate performances of our service men and women in a succession of operations;

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men and women who are equipped with the finest military systems in the world. They also reflect productive relations derived from daily interaction among U.S. military personnel and their regional counterparts.

We live in decisive times. The threats to our national interests are very real and very dangerous. Protecting those interests requires patience and consistency. There are no shortcuts or cookie-cutter solutions and we should not abandon the course we have set for ourselves. Working in our favor is the general support we receive from regional leaders. While they may not agree with everything we do, they want the United States to provide "firm leadership". On the whole, they look to America's military strength as a source of stability in an unstable environment.

USCENTCOM's Five-Pillar Strategy provides a road map for fulfilling America's military mission in the region. "Near continuous presence," bolstered by our nation's power projection capabilities, offers the basis for handling regional threats and associated diplomatic concerns. The complementary competencies of our individual military services enshrined in USCENTCOM's Five Pillar Strategy promote stability, deter conflict, and, if deterrence fails, allow us to fight and win. It is this mix of military capabilities, coupled with our theater strategy, that sows the seeds of victory in any future conflict. We in USCENTCOM look forward to working with the military Services, Department of Defense, and Congress in realizing our Nation's goals in the Central Region.

Chairman THURMOND. General Clark.

STATEMENT OF GEN. WESLEY K. CLARK, USA, COMMANDER IN CHIEF, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND

General CLARK. Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you and to describe how the United States Southern Command supports United States interests in the Americas.

I have a written statement that I would like to submit for the record, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman THURMOND. Your entire statement will go into the record, and you can brief it.

General CLARK. Thank you, sir. I would like to just briefly summarize some of the key points here.

First, I would like to point out that no other region in the world has evolved in a manner so promising for American interests as Latin America and the Caribbean. The hemisphere has decidedly transitioned to democracy during the past decade; 34 of 35 nations-all except Cuba-have democratically elected governments, and their militaries are subordinate to civilian authority.

This is a region that is critical to the United States economically. Forty percent of American exports go to the Western Hemisphere. We are putting today as many exports into Latin American and the Caribbean as we do the European Union. The U.S. Trade Representative estimates that by the year 2010, trade with Latin America and the Caribbean will exceed our trade with Europe and Japan combined.

We are hopeful that this expansion of trade and the economic growth that it brings into the region will help the countries of this region address the awful problems of poverty that beset so many people there. Our neighbors in this region also share our commitment to peace and justice. Currently, eight Latin American countries are participating in 13 United Nation peacekeeping missions, with over 2,500 troops deployed.

Our cultural ties with the region are numerous. More than 10 percent of Americans are of Hispanic origin, and presently the United States is the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world.

We have high hopes and we see great opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean. But these hopes and opportunities rest on fragile foundations, and they are beset by a number of challenges, which affect us as well. I would mention four of these here this morning.

First, the problem of drug trafficking. Staggering costs in the United States-$50 billion that North American consumers spend each year on illegal drugs causes untold billions of damage to our society, 25,000 annual deaths-but this drug trafficking is also eroding the institutions and the fabric of societies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is promoting corruption, crime and the destruction of their youth as well. They are increasingly coming to recognize this.

We have concerns about illegal migration from the region. We have concerns about terrorism. The taking of hundreds of hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, is clearly the year's most publicized event. However, we have seen increasing evidence that other terrorist groups-principally from the Middle East, are also at work and organizing in this region.

I would add to this the problem of illegal weapons transfers, which are flowing constantly up and down through Central America, and into the countries of South America.

These are just a few of the reasons that we are engaged in the region and why we must stay engaged in this region. Our engagement is coordinated by the United States Southern Command, one of the Nation's five geographic combatant commands. Our area of operations include Central and South America, most of the adjacent waters, and, effective 1 June, the Gulf of Mexico and the islands of the Caribbean. This latest change to the Unified Command Plan will result in an area of 411 million people, living in 33 nations and 13 dependent areas, covering one-sixth of the world's land mass.

Over the past year, the Command's strategy of regional engagement has been revised, to focus more sharply on security, stability and regional cooperation. We have defined these specific objectives of the strategy:

First, to promote democratic development of the region's armed forces and institutions. Second, to work with the Nations of the region in reducing tensions. Third, to prepare for cooperative work. Fourth, to support these countries in their fight against narco-trafficking.

In pursuit of these objectives, SOUTHCOM works carefully and with respect for the diversity and the sovereignty of each nation. We work carefully to respond to the needs of our ambassadors and country teams in the region.

I would like to give you just a few brief examples of specific programs within these categories that are helping us to attain our objectives. First of all, we have many methods of promoting democratic development of the armed forces, including exercises, exchanges, seminars, and so forth. One of the most gratifying operations we have run is the SOUTHCOM Human Rights Conference. We held our second annual human rights conference last month in Miami.

It was attended by some 200 representatives, high-ranking members of the armed forces and civilian institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as representatives of nongovernmental organizations. It brought about an improvement in the atmosphere and offered hope for increasing cooperative work not only to respond to human rights problems, but to work to prevent them.

In terms of tension reduction, we have had some excellent results with one of the most successful peacekeeping operations conducted in the 1990's. I am referring to the military observer mission to Ecuador and Peru. In this mission, we joined with the countries of Argentina, Brazil and Chile. We are supporting a four-party effort, with four U.S. helicopters, 61 servicemen, deployed in the remote Amazon highlands, on the border between Peru and Ecuador. This peacekeeping mission is reducing tensions and helping deter the outbreak of new fighting between Peru and Ecuador today.

In the area of preparing for cooperative work in times of emergency or crisis, we are doing a great deal of work with humanitarian and civic assistance. Most of this is done by our Reserve component personnel, but it builds the institutional foundation so that we could come back in later and help out in disasters or emergencies.

Last year, we went to 12 countries, and completed 111 projects. We built schools, wells and clinics. At the same time, we built bridges with our neighbors and increased the job proficiency of our troops.

Central and South America is the least-militarized region in the world. But a modest security assistance program enhances U.S. engagement with regional allies. It gives us leverage in the region and it improves our interoperability with their armed forces.

International military education and training continues to be one of our most cost-effective means of imparting democratic values to the region's militaries. Last year, the program provided training for over 1,500 students. It is a low-cost, high-return program, worthy of your continued support.

Finally, let me mention our work in support of the counterdrug fight. The counterdrug strategy of President Decision Directive 14 is a source-country-focused strategy, and it is a principal effort of the United States Southern Command. We are currently conducting Operation Laser Strike, focused on the disruption of the PeruColombia air bridge—an air route used for movement of coca base from Peru into processing labs in Colombia. We are employing U.S. assets, such as ground-based radars, a satellite communications network, and AWACS.

The key to success is that this is a regional approach instead of a fragmented, country-by-country effort. We are also, at the same time, working with the host nation institutions to strengthen them in their capacity to attack the narco-traffickers.

In pursuing these four strategic objectives, we are also preparing for the next century. We continue to implement the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties. We have steadily reduced permanently assigned U.S. personnel in Panama from more than 10,000 in 1992 to some 6,200 today. The drawdown will continue. We will be down to 4,400 over the next 6 months. If the Governments of Panama and the United States do not agree to some continued presence, perhaps in