DTRA’s Building Partnerships Director recently traveled to Oregon and Utah to meet with The Adjutant Generals of the Oregon and Utah National Guard.  The purpose of this trip was to build on DTRA’s relationships with the Oregon National Guard (ORNG) and Utah National Guard (UTNG).  

One of DTRA’s roles is to build partner nation capacity in support of the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCCs) by training and equipping partner nations to Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD).  DTRA is actively seeking to work effectively with National Guard units as they forge enduring relationships with the nations they have been paired with through DoD’s State Partnership Program (SPP)*.

The ORNG SPP shares mutual security cooperation interest with DTRA in Vietnam and Bangladesh in the areas that touch on CWMD capacity building activities.  Likewise, DTRA’s relationship with UTNG SPP matured through engagements with Morocco, and DTRA looks forward to exploring additional opportunities.

DTRA will continue to advance these relationships and be proactive in working together with the ORNG and UTNG, and these two senior-level meetings are the latest step toward continued success.  Interagency relationships like these are a crucial factor in our Nation’s integrated deterrence strategy to support the GCCs, U.S. Embassies, and partner nation objectives. 

*The State Partnership Program (SPP) is a DoD security cooperation program managed by the National Guard Bureau, executed by the Geographic Combatant Commands, and sourced by the National Guards of the U.S. States and Territories.  The SPP is an innovative, cost-effective, and flexible program that builds and sustains defense capability with our foreign partners.  This is accomplished by fostering enduring personal and institutional relationships that links a State’s National Guard with a partner nation’s military, security forces, and disaster response organizations in a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship.