Much has been written about the National Guard’s dual-use nature—ready to respond to state and federal missions alike—but less well understood is how these missions intersect. Defense leaders and fellow citizens alike should understand that the Guard’s contributions to American resiliency also build deterrence against potential adversaries.
This past year saw Hurricanes Helene and Milton surge ashore on the Gulf Coast of Florida, leaving a trail of destruction for hundreds of miles. In California, wildfires raged from late spring through December, displacing tens of thousands and destroying businesses and homes in densely populated areas. In these incidents and others, National Guard forces were there.
The Guard sent “force packages”—community-based forces as well as units from other states called in via Emergency Management Assistance Compact agreements—to join non-governmental organizations, local and state first responders, and governmental officials. These teams of teams worked together to overcome each challenge with an array of combined capabilities. Within weeks, National Guard response efforts gave way to civil authorities operating at normal capacity, and Guardsmen returned once again to their civilian careers.
The close coordination and adaptiveness of such responses demonstrate a core U.S. advantage: national resilience. Response missions to hurricanes, wildfires, floods, or cyberattacks generate many of the same demands that would be found in wartime.
As the Defense Department works to deter China, it is important to assess the components of deterrence and how they shape adversary behavior. Among these are credible and ready U.S. capabilities, partner and ally contributions, and a strong national will. Another key is the nation’s ability to muster and project logistics support in a contested homeland environment. If China can complicate U.S. efforts to generate, project, and sustain the joint force abroad by striking within the U.S. homeland, its regional calculus becomes less challenging in a wartime scenario. Therefore, strengthening the nation’s processes and partnerships today to effectively operate in a contested homeland tomorrow is a critical component of effective deterrence.
This is where the National Guard provides unique value. As the nexus through which local, state, and federal entities converge before and during crisis, the Guard continues to set the conditions called for in the White House executive order on state and local preparedness. Since disasters are not confined to any state or region of the country, the National Guard remains agile everywhere, able to respond to a variety of scenarios with key partners. This continual vertical and horizontal coordination is multiplied across the vast surface area of the National Guard, a 433,000-strong organization present in more than 2,500 communities across the nation. This further complicates adversary attempts at disruption by disaggregating combat capabilities. In sum, the National Guard’s ability to marshal critical capabilities at the right time and place during disasters—natural and manmade—will also complicate adversary decision-making in wartime.
The National Guard’s contributions to preparedness and resiliency also include steady-state capabilities that bolster critical infrastructure and create hard targets for adversaries. Every day, Cyber Protection Teams help form the front line of network defense, protecting critical databases from a variety of malign actors. Meanwhile, National Guard crews in Alaska and Colorado stand ready 24/7 to conduct ballistic missile defense missions of the homeland. Elsewhere, Civil Support Teams train constantly with local authorities to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive threats nationwide. The National Guard Counter Drug program helps the 54 states and territories combat illicit drug trafficking and transnational crime organizations. All these enduring National Guard missions contribute to national resilience and make it harder to complicate U.S. power projection.
The Guard also contributes abroad, often with the 115 foreign military partners in the State Partnership Program. When Hawaii and Guam Guardsmen work with international partners in INDOPACOM during the Philippines’ Balikatan exercise, or Maryland National Guard cyber experts provide support in Estonia following Russian cyberattacks, they apply skills learned in their military and civilian careers to help build partner strength, resilience, and interoperability. Skills honed in these enduring partnerships enable success in warfighting, as demonstrated when partners Michigan and Latvia deployed together to Afghanistan. Guardsmen also learn new approaches to planning and mission execution, giving them multiple frames of reference to approach difficult problems. They bring them home, putting them to use when supporting civil authorities—or in their civilian jobs from Wall Street and Main Street: as first responders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs.
The Guard’s ability to be “Always Ready, Always There” in the homeland and war fight has served the nation well for over 388 years, enabling it to adapt, overcome, and persevere across each new chapter of U.S. history. With China as the pacing threat, a fully integrated approach to deterrence is required that uses the credible and tested skills of the National Guard, a force that harnesses the combined strength of the nation. By continually testing and improving our processes and investing in the National Guard as a hub of resiliency, the nation can continue to widen its competitive advantage.
