Chairman Wicker Leads SASC Hearing on NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM Posture for FY 2027

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today led a hearing to examine the posture of U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command amid evolving homeland security threats, increasing great power competition in the Western Hemisphere, and ongoing efforts to strengthen border security and counter transnational criminal organizations.

General Gregory M. Guillot, USAF, Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, and General Francis L. Donovan, USMC, Commander, United States Southern Command, appeared before the committee.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Wicker emphasized that protecting the U.S. homeland is the federal government's top priority, highlighting the evolving threats posed by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational cartels. The Chairman also underscored the importance of strengthening coordinated homeland defense efforts, advancing initiatives such as Golden Dome, and supporting NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM in securing the border and countering malign influence and illicit trafficking across the Western Hemisphere.

Read Chairman Wicker's hearing opening statement as delivered.

Thank you all for being here. The committee meets today to receive testimony on the posture of?United States Northern Command and United States Southern Command. We are joined by General Gregory Guillot from U.S. Northern Command and General Frank Donovan from U.S. Southern Command. I want to thank our witnesses for appearing today and for their decades of service to our nation. Thank you gentlemen.

Protecting the homeland is the first and most important duty of the federal government. Without a credible and effective homeland defense, there can be no United States of America for our 250th anniversary.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union represented the only true threat to the United States homeland. Today, the threat environment is much more complicated. Both Russia and China possess a range of nuclear, conventional, space, and cyber capabilities that threaten the U.S. homeland. Iran and Sunni jihadis remain intent on carrying out terrorist attacks in America. Tehran and Pyongyang have conducted cyberattacks against our critical infrastructure. And cartels are using innovative methods to traffic drugs and humans across our borders. All these adversaries share a common goal: to reduce our influence in the Western Hemisphere and to harm Americans at home.

To counter these threats, we need a coordinated homeland defense strategy. It must weave together conventional defenses and new partnerships with allies and partners in our region. We certainly appreciate our allies and partners.

We are poised to make great progress on Golden Dome and similar efforts to protect the homeland from incoming drone and missile threats. I enthusiastically support these efforts. Golden Dome will reduce the threat posed by ballistic and cruise missiles from Russia, China, and North Korea. I look forward to hearing how General Guillot is working with the Golden Dome team to make these defenses a reality. In particular, I would like to learn how his coordination with the Joint Interagency Task Force-401 will help counter the threat of small drones.

I also applaud NORTHCOM's professionalism in support of the Department of Homeland Security. This has helped reinforce our border and helped stop virtually all illegal immigration. A singular achievement.

We know that homeland defense does not stop at our border with Mexico. More than 100,000 Americans are killed annually in drug-related deaths. These immense and tragic losses come at the hands of South American cartels. Cartels contribute to violence, undermine regional stability, and are linked to human trafficking, weapons smuggling, and financial crime. I commend SOUTHCOM for its execution of Operation Southern Spear, which is helping to stop narco-terrorists from bringing drugs onto our shores. It is also deterring future traffickers from attempting the same. I hope General Donovan can expound on the department's efforts to coordinate more closely with our Central and South American partners to fight back against the cartels.

China, Russia, and Iran all target the Western Hemisphere in their influence operations. Xi Jinping seeks to control telecommunications systems, critical infrastructure such as the Panama Canal, and major deepwater ports such as Chancay in Peru. China has also expanded defense cooperation across South America through arms sales, police training, and space and cyber partnerships.

Likewise, Russia is selling arms, providing military advisors, and expanding intelligence cooperation to South American nations. In exchange, it gets permission to deploy Russian military aircraft and naval vessels to the region. Together, China and Russia exploit local corruption and partner with hostile authoritarian regimes, like Cuba and Nicaragua. They build influence and gain political leverage to target the United States close to home.

We must resist these malign influence campaigns in our neighborhood. That's what we're about today. I would like to hear General Donovan's ideas about how we can do so, especially through increased coordination with the Economic Defense Unit, intelligence community, and the Office of Strategic Capital. So, expect that question.

I commend the Trump administration for the decisive action it has taken to reassert U.S. interests near the homeland, including the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. I strongly support a more aggressive counter-drug strategy. This must emphasize border security, cripple the cartels, and expand security partnerships with Latin American countries in order to eliminate safe havens for the illicit networks that plague our hemisphere.