ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The National Guard’s State Partnership Program will grow by several nations this year, expanding to more than 100 the number of U.S. military partnerships with allies and partners, said Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

In remarks before defense and industry leaders participating in the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington, D.C., Hokanson announced that Finland, Palau, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sweden and Tanzania will be added to the program in 2024.

After 30 years, the National Guard’s State Partnership Program and the relationships it fosters are more critical now than ever, the component’s top general said. 

“These relationships matter more than ever,” said Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “Russia’s violent, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has increased interest in the State Partnership Program. Other countries are looking at Russia and are concerned that they, too, will need to defend their sovereignty.” 

As the National Guard’s State Partnership Program marks its 30th anniversary, the program is poised to continue expanding, bolstering its mission of building enduring relationships with America’s partners and allies around the world.

“The Guard is currently partnered with more than half of the world’s nations, and we expect to see continued growth in the coming years,” Maj. Gen. William Zana, director of strategic plans and policy and international affairs at the National Guard Bureau, said during a meeting with members of the media.

Facing evolving global threats, the Army is working to coordinate its efforts around the world to deter aggression and potential conflict, the service’s top civilian leader said.

“We've spent a lot of time over the decades thinking about engagement and building partner capacity, but we haven't always necessarily synchronized our activities from one theater to the other,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said.

The National Guard’s State Partnership Program remains critical to the force and “has paid huge dividends,” particularly in Ukraine, the chief of the National Guard Bureau said.  

“Building enduring, trusted relationships” with global partners is a key part of the component’s readiness, Gen. Daniel Hokanson said, citing as an example the partnership between the California National Guard and Ukraine, which dates to 1993. 

As a land force, the Army is strategically poised to leverage relationships with allies and partners in multidomain competition, but it must continue to proactively build its network, according to the author of a new paper.

Describing the Army’s security force assistance brigades, Special Forces soldiers and the State Partnership Program as a “security force assistance triad,” author Charles McEnany writes that all three are critical to the Army’s “modernization for strategic competition and [multidomain operations].”

The National Guard has “brought hope to America when it needed it the most,” the Army chief of staff said Aug. 27.

Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, before the National Guard Association of the United States’ General Conference and Exhibition, Gen. James McConville heaped praise on the Guard. The Regular Army doesn’t “go anywhere or do anything without the National Guard,” he said. “We cannot do what we do as an Army without the National Guard.”

The U.S. military continues to face an array of threats in Africa while keeping its eye on near-peer competitors such as China and Russia, the commander of U.S. Africa Command said.

“We’ve kept events in Africa from derailing. Our primary security focus is China as our pacing threat and Russia as our… near-term threat. We’ve been able to focus on those threats because we haven’t had to focus on Africa,” Gen. Stephen Townsend said July 28 during a media event hosted by the Defense Writers Group. 

Close contact with allies and partners, combined with solid training and education, are the cornerstones to successful missions for the soldiers and leaders of U.S. Army Central, the command’s leader said.

American soldiers continue to build relationships with allies and partners as the U.S. Army Central area of operations remains a “hotbed” of strategic competition, said Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of the Army service component command.