Soldiers practice CBRN drills at Schofield Baracks, Hawaii. (Sgt. Sarah D. Williams\/U.S. Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLeading up to the 1990 Persian Gulf War, planners suspected that Iraq\u2019s leader Saddam Hussein might use stockpiles of chemical weapons as he had in the Iran-Iraq War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pentagon deployed more than 4,000 CBRN specialists to the region. While coalition troops did not face such attacks, post-conflict reports showed a severe lack of training, equipping and preparation that was only resolved by the six-month buildup before combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1993, Congress created a defense-wide chemical and biological defense program. A decade later, when the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, troops again prepared hastily for a potential chemical attack as the stated objective of the operation was to remove alleged weapons of mass destruction from Iraq\u2019s arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many were ordered to take the Anthrax vaccine before deployment and frontline units carried protective gear and experienced multiple false alarms for chemical attacks in the early weeks of the war. Again, U.S. troops did not face such attacks and inspectors did not find the alleged WMDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, in the coming years, technological advances have brought about more ways to use nukes, such as low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons. Such devices can devastate a small area without the larger fallout of multi-kiloton warheads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, they still carry the terrible aspects of nuclear attack and contaminate locations, causing devastating consequences locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That means planners must account for these threats and train troops accordingly, Peters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe what you need to do is button down your Stryker and roll through this area,\u201d Peters said. \u201cAnd you\u2019re airtight in there for X number of hours. At the end of that you put on your [protective gear] and you need to [decontaminate] your Stryker because you need to get to the front within 36 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those are the scenarios that service leaders must now consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fighting \u2018dirty\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n In recent years, the Army has been rebuilding and reprioritizing CBRN units and training as leaders eye the growing threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advances in technology have cut costs for developing new biological and chemical agents that militaries can\u2019t counter. The internet has opened previously hard-to-acquire information for rogue states and terror groups who want to build and use such weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, new sensors, materials, computing and automation are bringing tools to bear that will detect threats, model and simulate their effects and give commanders options without endangering troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But all those advances will take time. And the arms race that defined the nuclear age continues as those tech advances help weapons developers find gaps and outmaneuver protective measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this has led to a new way of thinking about contamination threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously commanders thought that any level of contamination meant the gear, personnel or an area was \u201cdirty,\u201d and must be completely cleansed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s not feasible and with new equipment, it\u2019s also not effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are reframing the way we look at risk for CBRN writ large,\u201d said Lt. Col. Dan Meany, director of full dimensional protection for the Army\u2019s programming office. \u201cWe are trying to move away from thinking about CBRN as a binary threat, a binary hazard: \u2018I am 100% clean. I am 100% dirty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the National Defense Industrial Association annual CBRN conference in June, Meany said the new approach is to get commanders to accept risk and then have CBRN soldiers determine how much they can reduce risk for operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That will mean using more uncrewed systems and relying on single pieces of equipment that can detect more contaminants, and finding ways to automate decontamination, especially of combat vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army Futures Command has developed concepts for how to run automated decon sites, though there is not yet a program for it, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steady shifts mean big changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Over the past decade, the Pentagon has updated its strategy to counter WMDs to incorporate new threats and the office has renewed its nuclear posture review and, in 2023, completed a first-of-its-kind biological defense posture review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Victoria RamageGarcia took over as the 20th CBRNE Command chief warrant officer in July and has spent the past 20 years in this work. Early in her career, units focused mostly on evacuating contaminated casualties and working with other agencies for homeland defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There wasn\u2019t much integration with operational units. But in the past decade and even more over the past five years, she\u2019s seen CBRN experts brought into all aspects of unit planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am only as great of an asset to you as you allow me to be,\u201d RamageGarcia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working through potential CBRN attacks can\u2019t be an afterthought. Without preparation, such an attack can devastate a unit and render it inoperable, stalling the larger fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If experts such as RamageGarcia understand the commander\u2019s mission and goals, they can keep the unit fighting, regardless of what it encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoldiers prepare for role-players to come through a Mass Casualty Decontamination line. (2nd Lt. Corey Maisch\/U.S. Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn 2019 the Joint Chiefs of Staff published an updated nuclear operations manual, which lays out how unit commanders will fight through nuclear attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The manual also details how U.S. commanders might use their own tactical nukes offensively. The document calls for combatant commanders to create priority target lists for nuclear strikes in their regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCommanders should know how nuclear weapon effects can affect personnel, equipment, and the dynamics of combat power. They should train for and implement survivability measures and techniques,\u201d according to the doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also in 2019, the 1st Armored Division conducted a Warfighter Exercise, which focused on command post operations, almost entirely in CBRN protective gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Post-training observations published by the Combined Arms Center identified shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnits have not prepared adequately at home station to conduct [protective gear] exchange within six hours of being contaminated,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The units also tended to \u201cstumble\u201d on selective unmasking required after conditions began to clear. And they were not proficient with their decontamination system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By early 2020, soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, were establishing a standard certification process for CBRN recon platoons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early the next year, the Army updated technical guidance to its CBRN platoons and a few months later soldiers with the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division were part of the largest CBRN-focused rotation at the National Training Center since 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unit faced an \u201cunprecedented amount\u201d of CBRN munition attacks during their training cycle, Maj. Chris Chavis, the 2nd Chemical Battalion operations officer, said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army 2030 campaign plan updated its CBRN approach across the force, which includes a seven-year effort to prove new concepts for maneuver units operating in CBRN during large-scale combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first major step happened last year, at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California, when the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division served as a \u201cproof of concept\u201d team for CBRN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using information from that rotation, Lt. Col. Sean Carmody, countering WMD readiness integrator at Army headquarters told Army Times, they began a pilot program this year with 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, which will culminate in the brigade facing a simulated nuclear attack during their October rotation at the Joint Pacific Multinational Training Center, Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If successful, the CBRN plan will integrate new methods across operational units by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials have also designed a new heavy decontamination reconnaissance company, to bring large units into areas to clean themselves and their equipment or prepare to head into danger areas, said Brig. Gen. W Bochat, former commandant of the Army\u2019s CBRN School who took over 20th CBRN Command in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, leaders have added education at nearly all levels for individual soldiers and commanders, said Col. Schoenberger, Countering WMD Agency director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2022, Army recruits now face CBRN scenarios at boot camp and combat training. Enlisted and officers must pass CBRN requirements in their professional courses. The CBRN School teamed up with their engineer and military police counterparts and CBRN officers now run a tabletop exercise with senior advisors during their captain\u2019s course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diverse threats call for new gear<\/h3>\n\n\n\n These new threats have led to renewed efforts to counter them, and their effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Decades-old equipment won\u2019t work in today\u2019s CBRN landscape, experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, Deborah Rosenblum, the assistant secretary of defense over CBRN Defense called for a \u201cradical transformation\u201d in equipping the services for combatting the \u201cvastly more difficult\u201d and \u201crapidly changing\u201d threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, the Pentagon had just increased its annual spending on CBRN by $300 million and sought an additional $1.2 billion over the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the most recent budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, the Pentagon seeks $1.7 billion for CBRN research and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funding aims to improve soldier protection<\/a>, detection and threat reporting and add remote-controlled or autonomous methods to do the most dangerous work.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoldiers from the 59th CBRN Company “Mountain Dragons” are bolster the Republic of Korea-U.S. Alliance combined defense posture during a rotational deployment near the Korean Demilitarized Zone. (U.S. Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRobots are more than a safety concern because there are not enough CBRN professionals to go around. As of 2021, the Army, the largest service with the most CBRN troops, had nearly 6,000 enlisted specialists and slightly more than 300 officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By comparison, there were more than 52,000 infantry soldiers and 7,300 officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And many of those CBRN capabilities rest with the Guard and Reserve components whose missions vary from the active-duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Reserve has two brigades dedicated to CBRN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Guard has its own, focused primarily on homeland defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The active Army has only one brigade to cover ongoing training and global operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the coming years, the Army is scheduled to bring new decontamination systems, collective protection gear, individual masks and suits into operation, according to Army auisition data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service is replacing its legacy biological equipment with the joint biological tactical detection system, which will give biodefense platoons near real-time detection of airborne biological agents, Bochat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the centerpiece of equipment efforts is the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle Sensor Suite Upgrade, which offers crews protection and sensors for their immediate area and the ability to launch drones from their vehicles so they can gauge the dangers outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To give soldiers less exposure, the service issued a new man-transportable robot, to CBRN and explosives disposal teams that can be outfitted with sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Autonomous efforts are taking longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An autonomous decon system, a key development that could save manpower and reduce exposure remains in early testing until at least fiscal year 2027. Additionally, a wearable compact detector has been in development since 2014 and has yet to reach later testing stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An autonomous vapor chemical detector is expected to see initial operational capability in fiscal year 2027 but won\u2019t be fully operational until fiscal year 2032.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As changes in doctrine, training and equipment converge in the coming years, soldiers across the force in operational and support units will see more time spent donning gas masks, stocking up on protective gear, planning for the nefarious \u201cwhat ifs\u201d of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think things are better, but they\u2019ve frankly got about three decades worth of lost knowledge that they\u2019re trying to rebuild in real time,\u201d said Peters, the Heritage Foundation nuclear expert. \u201c[Ground commanders] are not really thinking about, oh God, if Putin or Xi Jinping or Kim Jong Un makes a decision to employ these things, there could actually be a number of these things that we have to fight our way through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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