U.S. to Expand Domestic WMD Response Forces

By Diane Barnes
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The United States has begun to reorganize its military response to a domestic WMD attack by establishing three widely dispersed groups, each numbering in the thousands (see GSN, March 7).

The first such force would include specialists in responding to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks — such as Army chemical decontamination and biological defense personnel — who were originally charged with working on Cold War battlefields.

That group, the WMD Consequence Management Response Force, is set to begin operating its first unit on U.S. soil for in October. The U.S. Northern Command would control the force, which would include personnel from a wide variety of military branches.

“This is historic,” U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Paul McHale told Global Security Newswire. “When all of these units are combined for the first time in our nation’s history, we will have more than 20,000 men and women whose primary mission will be domestic catastrophic response.”

It would likely arrive at the site of a major attack after smaller teams provide reconnaissance and initial response services.

First to an attacked site would be a state-based WMD Civil Support Team run by the National Guard. These teams are designed to mobilize within two or three hours of an attack to gather information about possible chemical, biological or radiological contamination (see GSN, March 8).

Last December, the Pentagon certified the 53rd of 55 planned National Guard teams (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). Congress has called for establishing at least one such team in each U.S. state and territory as well as the District of Columbia.

Drawing from information gathered by civil support teams, the governor of the attacked state could then choose to deploy one of 17 National Guard WMD Emergency Response Force Packages, units of about 300 troops that can perform decontamination and provide medical services.

Elements of the National Guard units might later be reassigned to work within the larger federal response forces, enabling the Pentagon to assert control over normally state-administered forces, the Air Force Times reported last month.

“What you [would] see is a coordinated deployment of military forces, some within the National Guard, some within the active-duty military, in order to achieve a unified military response to the requirements of the WMD event,” McHale said, noting that the nature of an attack would determine which personnel are deployed.

“It is likely that the response of the [National Guard teams] would be measured in hours, it is probable that the main body of the [response force] would arrive within several days,” he said.

When the larger group arrives, they would bring permanently assigned aviation crews to carry out search-and-rescue activities as well as specialists for extracting people from debris and medical workers.

To meet what McHale described as “a sobering mission requirement,” mortuary specialists would be available to handle the contaminated remains of people killed in the attack (see GSN, Nov. 13, 2003).

McHale said the response forces would demonstrate great flexibility.

“It might be that we experience an attack, for instance a nuclear detonation, that might require the assistance of more than one [response force]” or “we might have multiple chemical attacks that would involve the capabilities of less than one [team],” he said. He added that additional U.S. troops could be pulled from overseas if they are needed as reinforcements.

The Pentagon is still working on price estimates of the reorganization, but McHale said it cost roughly $19 million to stage a 2007 exercise that involving roughly one-third of the forces contained in a response force grouping.

The first grouping, ready to become operational in October, will probably incorporate more federal active-duty and reserve forces than the second and third groups, which would emphasize National Guard personnel. The Defense Department plans to prepare the second grouping in late 2009 followed by the third in late 2010, McHale said.

However, it remains uncertain whether personnel will be available to staff the second and third forces when the groups are scheduled to become operational, according to an April report by congressional investigators.

“Despite being the only set of capabilities dedicated to a [domestic] civil support plan, the [response force] has never been fully manned and equipped by the Defense Department because many of the units that would make up the force have been deployed to their wartime missions or because of other availability or sourcing issues,” the Government Accountability Office report states.