a 9,800 short ton per day capability against a 21,000 short ton per day goal. The key to a successful Logistics Over the Shore operation program is a Lighter Amphibious-Heavy (LAMP-H) hover craft which can deliver a full range of equipment across the beach. This important program is being supported by the Army and continued funding support is solicited.

Sustaining Central Command forces requires adequate medical facilities and equipment. While the plan is to use available medical facilities to the maximum extent, a 70% bed shortfall still exists which is of major concern and can only be overcome with continued support for the Deployable Medical Systems Program which is funded in the current budget.

Command and Control

A robust, survivable, theater-wide communications capability is an essential element in the effective command and control (C2) of assigned forces. Consequently, development of a command and control communications infrastructure receives a high priority.

Until recently, the region was uniquely devoid of United States command and control communications. The Defense Communications System essentially stopped at Turkey in the West and at the Philippine Islands in the East. Furthermore, most host nation commercial communications are extremely limited and their viable military systems are just now beginning to come on line.

Due mainly to requirements associated with tanker escort operations in the Gulf, the Command has enjoyed limited success in closing this gap in the Defense Communications System. Minimum essential communications and computer systems have been pre-positioned in an operational status at key locations support the Commander, Joint Task Force Middle East, Security

to

Assistance Offices, United States Military Training Missions, and United States Embassies.

Plans are to continue to upgrade assets in the Area of Responsibility and the continental United States. Actual deployment will be gradual and will depend on operational and storage agreements negotiated with the region's host nations. Ideally, equipment will be positioned in storage at preferred locations where communications maintenance and management facilities are planned. Equipment based in the United States will be maintained in an operational status` and will be used for training prior to any required deployment.

Since Persian Gulf activities are closely related to friendly regional states, interoperability requirements are not limited to United States forces. A number of secure voice circuits have been established between the United States and friendly nations for immediate threat warning and measured, combined responses. Permission for overflight clearance is obtained through this means as is coordination on other matters of mutual interest and

concern.

The Central Command's Command and Control posture has steadily improved throughout the past year. Further, plans and programs are in place to continue the improvement in both near and long term.

Intelligence

The success of Our forces' tanker escort mission in the Persian Gulf over the last year and a half could not have been achieved without the timely collection, analysis, and dissemination of reliable intelligence to the commanders

scene.

on the

During this period, Central Command deployed and depended on small-scale intelligence systems of limited capability. These were the only systems available to us; despite their usefulness, they failed to fill several critical voids in our intelligence requirements.

With your support, Central Command hopes to put in place an array of full-capability systems that will be able to provide comprehensive intelligence support to Central Command forces in any foreseeable contingency. These will include the Deployable Intelligence Data Handling System (DIDHS), which is to come on line this year, and will boost our ability to analyze and manage the flow of intelligence information from collector to commander. A new imagery-processing system, which we hope to get next year, will slash a remarkable 18 to 24 hours from our response time to imagery intelligence requests.

Coupled with new communications capabilities such as the Portable Receive-Transmit System (PORTS-II) and the Scalable Transportable Intelligence Communications System (STICS), we will be able to move imagery and intelligence data from the photo interpreter to the operational commander in minutes rather than days.

Finally, we are exploring the capabilities of newlydeveloped, reliable, relatively inexpensive Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), which could give operational commanders immediate, on-scene reconnaissance support.

Intelligence support is an area in which Central Command cannot afford to fall behind. With your backing, the Command will be able to provide its forces with the timely, reliable intelligence they need to operate effectively in any foreseeable contingency.

SUMMATION

То sum up, let me state Central Command's succinctly as I can.

position as

in Our commitment to their

Because of its oil and critical sea lines of communication, the Central Command Area of Responsibility is vital to the security of the United States and its allies. Increasing Soviet presence and influence in the region constitute a threat to our interests. The best way to counter this threat is by building Our regional friends' confidence security. The United States can do this by maintaining a military presence in the region at a prudent level, by pursuing a comprehensive program of joint/combined military exercises with host nations, and by supporting the legitimate defense needs of our friends in the region through arms sales and meaningful levels of security assistance. Central Command has accomplished much in the past year and a half to prove our commitment. With sustained Congressional support, we will continue to do so.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1989.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF, UNITED STATES SOUTHERN

COMMAND

WITNESS

GENERAL FREDERICK WOERNER, JR., COMMANDER IN CHIEF, UNITED STATES SOUTHERN COMMAND

INTRODUCTION

Mr. MURTHA. The committee will come to order.

This morning the committee will hear testimony from the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Southern Command, General Frederick Woerner, Jr.

Although the budget and infrastructure of the Southern Command are modest in size and resources, the command is responsible for an area of great importance to the United States-namely Central America and South America.

This hearing is closed, subject to a vote taken on January 31. General, you have appeared before this committee before, we welcome you back. Please proceed with a summary of your statement.

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF GENERAL WOERNER

General WOERNER. Thank you, sir.

ECONOMIC PROGRESS

I see the region as a dichotomy between very significant progress on democratization, but unaccompanied, unfortunately, by socio-economic progress.

More specifically, in terms of democracy over the past decade, plus a year or two, we have seen at least ten countries exchange military rule for participatory democracy. Whereas, in the beginning of this decade, I would have counted the democracies on one hand, it is now possible for me to count the dictatorships in the Latin-American region on that same hand; specifically, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay with Chile being in transition following their noted plebiscite.

This, as I have said, unfortunately has not been accompanied by a reasonable degree of economic growth that would concomitantly permit social change. So we see such indicators persisting as a birth rate of 2.3 percent.

That doesn't sound like very much, but it doubles the population in Latin America every 30 years and it skews the distribution, the demographics, so that you have an inordinate population percentage under the age of 15, the international standard of productivity. This leads then to unemployment.

(377)