Homeland defense: military efforts target the protection of civilians.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Domestic Threats

The Defense Department's agency in charge of developing chemical and biological defense technologies is shifting its focus from large-scale incidents on the battlefield to small-scale terrorist attacks against civilians.

"It's been a seismic change in how we do business," Army Brig. Gen. Stephen V. Reeves told a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear conference, which was conducted in Tampa, Fla., by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the National Defense Industrial Association.

The joint program executive office for chemical and biological defense, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., was set up in April 2003 to serve as the focal point for research, development, acquisition, fielding and maintenance of equipment to protect all U.S. military personnel against chemical and biological weapons during combat.

The office's programs also include developing and fielding equipment for the National Guard's weapons of mass destruction civil-support teams and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive enhanced response forces, as well as the Marine Corps' chemical biological incident response force. The Marine unit, headquartered at Indian Head, Md., was established in 1996 to respond anywhere in the world in the event of an attack involving a chemical, biological or nuclear agent.

The Guard currently has 32 certified civil support teams, with 22 members each. These teams are trained to test disaster sites for mass-casualty agents. Another 12 teams are working toward certification. In November, the Defense Department notified Congress that it planned to field 11 more of the teams in 2005, which would complete Congress' request that every U.S. state and territory have one. In addition, the Guard has 11 chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive enhanced response force units, each of which has about 100 people who assist the civil support teams by locating and decontaminating victims in a relatively short period of time.

Previous chem-bio acquisition efforts--notably the massive drive to equip U.S. forces before the invasion of Iraq--were conducted by each individual service. The new office is intended to streamline chemical and biological acquisition and leverage the capabilities of each of the services.

The Army remains the executive agent for the department's overall chemical and biological defense program, as required by existing federal law. The chem-bio defense office reports both to...