South Dakota National Guard briefs legislature on global threats, mobilization risks and budget trims; Civil Air Patrol grant removed in governor’s proposal

Mark Morrell, agent general of the South Dakota National Guard, told a legislative committee the Guard exists “first and foremost to fight and win our nation’s wars,” and briefed lawmakers on recent missions, global threats, infrastructure vulnerabilities and the governor’s proposed budget changes affecting the Guard.

Global posture, missions and critical-infrastructure concerns Morrell summarized recent missions and force posture: fighter jets on homeland alert rotations, deployments to the Indo‑Pacific, Title 10 cyber defense missions in the national capital region, aviation support for counter‑drug and wildfire operations, and soldiers mobilized to the southern border in Title 10 status. He warned of growing coordination among adversary states and said the Guard is paying increased attention to critical‑infrastructure vulnerabilities. Morrell referenced recent large-scale cyber intrusion campaign names cited in his slides and said small‑town infrastructure and SCADA systems have been targeted, noting the difficulty of defending interconnected telecommunications, energy, transportation and…