CBRN Confab

North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command are holding their annual Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Summit this week at Peterson Air Force Base, CO, according to a NORTHCOM statement released today. The statement further reads:

The purpose of this year's summit is to bring together Canadian and U.S. CBRN personnel from local, state, national and military organizations to give the current composition of the CBRN Response Enterprise a hard look and determine if changes need to be made.

"It's part two of a three-part strategic assessment for the CBRN Response Enterprise," said Army Lt. Col. Pete Lofy, Deputy Chief of NORAD and USNORTHCOM CBRN Operations. "The first part was a rehearsal of concept for the CBRN Response Enterprise and had a military focus. Round two has an interagency focus."

Lofy said the summit will look at several aspects of the enterprise and ask hard questions. Any changes that are determined to be necessary would affect the Fiscal Year 2015 CBRN Response Enterprise.

"We're going to look at whether we are addressing the missions and requirements," he said. "Do we have the right units conducting these missions? Are the logistical functions set up to support the CBRN Response Enterprise? And are we satisfying the Interagency's requirements for consequence management in the homeland?"

The summit consists of panel discussions, working groups, static displays and a table-top exercise wherein CBRN organizations respond to a simulated incident on the U.S.-Canadian border.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Public Safety Canada and Canada Command have sent representatives to the summit while on the U.S. side organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as local responders from Denver and Michigan will also be participating.

In September 2010, InsideDefense.com reported that DOD should elevate the importance of its homeland-security mission to make it equal with warfighting as a means of ensuring that Pentagon planners set aside enough forces to support civil authorities in the aftermath of a catastrophe on U.S. soil with chemical, biological, or nuclear agents, according to a commission chartered by Congress. Further:

Despite DOD's claims in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review that homeland security is a key mission, there is "inadequate provision" for a task known as defense support of civil authorities (DSCA) in the military force-generation cycle, according to the panel's Sept. 15 report.

"DOD is not placing sufficient emphasis on budget and planning priorities related to DSCA missions, including CBRNE response," states the document. "DOD must have the ability to generate forces for the execution of DSCA missions, notwithstanding its other commitments."

The recommendation is one of many forwarded to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and congressional defense leaders by the Advisory Panel on Department of Defense Capabilities for Support of Civil Authorities After Certain Incidents. The Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act called for the creation of the panel, which first met on Sept. 15, 2009. The group published its final report, titled "Before Disaster Strikes -- Imperatives for Enhancing Defense Support of Civil Authorities," in accordance with disclosure requirements governing government advisory groups.

U.S. Northern Command should get a plus-up of federal forces operating under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the report states. It does not say how many such forces panelists believe are needed.

"Despite the advent of the National Guard [Homeland Response Forces], given the magnitude of a catastrophic CBRNE incident, general-purpose Title 10 forces that may be required for DSCA should be identified, at least by type," the document states.

In July 2010, InsideDefense.com reported that the Pentagon's acquisition executive had established a standing advisory panel to regularly assess the vulnerability of U.S. military weapons to attack from an electromagnetic pulse designed to cripple microcircuits and electronic systems.

Ashton Carter, the then-under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, directed the Defense Science Board to form a permanent task force "to assess all aspects of survivability of DOD systems and assets to EMP [electromagnetic pulse] and other nuclear weapon effects," according to a March 1, 2010, memo. InsideDefense.com further reported:

Carter has authorized the assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear and chemical and biological defense programs, Andrew Weber, to "act upon the advice and recommendations" of the task force, according to the memo.

The new task force -- co-chaired by Miriam John, former head of Sandia National Laboratories' California division, and Joe Braddock, founder of the BDM Corporation -- will "conduct an independent review and assessment of DOD's EMP survivability program and review other matters associated with nuclear survivability," according to the memo. . . .

In September 2008, the Defense Department issued a policy requiring all mission-critical weapon systems to have a plan to withstand the effects of a nuclear attack -- which includes a powerful electromagnetic pulse. This directive -- in the form of DOD Instruction No. 3150.09 -- stated that "survivability may be achieved by hardening, [tactics, techniques or procedures], or another mitigation procedure as funding allows."

Carter wants the new task force to "assess implementation" of this instruction as well as to "assess the effectiveness" of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Survivability Oversight Group (CSOG) led by Weber and created to review and monitor the execution of DOD CBRN survivability policy.

Check out the DSB's subsequent conclusions here:

DSB Report on EMP Survivability of Defense Systems