CBRN Programs and Threats
Written by Erin Flynn Jay
MMT 2010 Volume: 14 Issue: 4 (June)
The U.S. Department of Defense will focus on providing capabilities for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs (CBDP)’s four nontraditional agent (NTA) defense priorities: detection, medical countermeasures, decontamination and individual protection. The DoD will also complete the necessary research to ensure a full scientific understanding of NTAs to enable these four priorities.
The technologies relevant to biological sciences are evolving rapidly. This rapid evolution creates risks in the form of modified or newly-engineered threats, and opportunities in the form of new approaches and technical opportunities to counter threats, said Navy Captain Kenneth A. Cole, medical director, Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, for CBDP.
Naturally emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases also pose a special challenge. “They can threaten our military forces in the field, as well as our civilian population and that of our allies and partners. Therefore, infectious disease must remain a focus of our biodefense efforts,” Cole said.
NTAs are chemicals and biochemicals reportedly researched or developed with potential application or intent as chemical warfare agents, but which do not fall in the category of traditional chemical warfare agents or toxic industrial chemicals (TICs)/toxic industrial materials (TIMs).
“The proliferation of nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological capabilities among state and non-state actors can threaten our ability to defend U.S. and allied interests, promote peace and security, ensure regional stability and protect our citizens,” Cole said. Preventing the proliferation and use of such weapons is therefore a top national priority for which many federal agencies have important responsibilities.
As the ability to create and employ weapons of mass destruction spreads globally, so must our combined efforts to detect, interdict and contain the effects of these weapons. To deter adversaries considering the use of chemical or biological weapons, the Department of Defense will enhance efforts to develop countermeasures, defenses and mitigation strategies.
The department will improve the ability to locate and secure WMD and WMD-related components, as well as interdict them on land, on sea or in the air. Geographic containment of areas of concern will be necessary to ensure that WMD and related materials do not fall into the hands of hostile actors—a concept of operations that will involve U.S. forces, interagency capabilities, and the cooperation of regional powers and coalition forces. “Effectively responding to WMD-armed threats will require an integrated, layered defense network in multiple geographic environments, and this could include areas inside the state of concern, along the state’s borders, in global transshipment lanes, in the approaches to the United States and in the United States itself,” Cole said.
Effectively responding against modified or newly-engineered threats will require rapid diagnostic and characterization capabilities, combined with rapid development and deployment of effective medical countermeasures. “Such an integrated, layered defense is essential to preventing an attack before it occurs, as well as responding to an attack should prevention or deterrence fail,” he added.
The CBDP continues to research, develop and acquire transformational, multipurpose capabilities that: provide DoD with safe and reliable detection, protection, hazard prediction and warning capabilities that are able to swiftly characterize current and emerging CBRN threats; provide an effective, multilayered set of defensive measures to minimize the effects of CBRN threats and allow for the rapid restoration of essential operations with minimal or no degradation; and emphasize development of prophylaxes, broad-spectrum therapeutics, and diagnostics that protect against known and emerging threats, along with the means to rapidly screen and produce tailored countermeasures to newly-emerged threats.
“The DoD will focus on providing capabilities for our four NTA defense priorities: detection, medical countermeasures, decontamination, and individual protection,” Cole said. “The DoD will also complete the necessary research to ensure a full scientific understanding of NTAs to enable these four priorities.”
Top priorities in the FY11 requested DoD budget are to:
- Provide complementary, multilayered and integrated CBRN defense systems across the combating WMD mission areas in support of homeland defense and overseas contingency operations;
- Ensure the development of defensive capabilities reflects the expected decrease in near-term threats from classic agents and increase in threats from emerging or engineered agents in the mid/far term; and
- Define and develop future capabilities to significantly enhance our ability to dissuade, deter, defend against and defeat any future adversary in all CBRN threat environments.
“As such, for the biological emerging threats we are working in the Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative to provide responsive capabilities mitigating biological threats, including those that are novel or have been genetically altered,” Cole said. In regards to areas of concern about funding for science and technology and other programs, Cole said Presidential Policy Directive- 2 (November 2009, National Security Council): National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats has changed the priority for this area. The department will work to ensure that future strategy, policy and resourcing decisions are made, in consideration of this important strategy. Medical countermeasures (MCMs) and biological surveillance must be funded to a level in accordance with these new strategic priorities.
The DoD is not requesting additional NTA defense funding for FY11. The projects established to develop interim NTA defense capabilities for DoD are funded to adequate levels to ensure programmatic goals are achieved in the near-term (end of FY11).
Cole’s office is enabling DoD to expand the biological threat reduction program (BTRP) as discussed in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review:
- The department will provide new technologies and capabilities for detection, diagnostics, data collection and assessment as well as opportunities for BTRP participants to engage in MCM research.
- The development of MCMs, including diagnostic tests, vaccines and pharmaceutical products, will be an essential component of DoD efforts.
- The nation and its partners must continue to supply medical and non-medical defense capabilities by providing an effective multilayered set of protective measures to minimize biological agent effects.
- These MCMs must be in compliance with Food and Drug Administration licensure regulations and protocols, thereby allowing the restoration of essential operations with minimal or no degradation.
- DoD and other federal agencies will coordinate extensively with MCM development to treat the physiological effects of biological exposure and/or contamination and to ensure interoperability and effective data sharing of defense capabilities for the global community.
WIRELESS SENSORS
Industry is providing innovative solutions to meet the department’s evolving nuclear and CBDP priorities.
For its part, RAE Systems saw deployment of AreaRAE Gamma and AreaRAE Steel at the Super Bowl, NBA All Star Game and the Vancouver Winter Olympics. “These wireless toxic gas and radiation sensors have a two mile radio range and can be integrated with handheld devices to authenticate and trace readings,” said Bob Durstenfeld, senior director, corporate marketing for RAE Systems. “The sensor systems were integrated with PlumeRAE, a toxic cloud measurement and tracking systems.”
RAE Systems’ new product is ProRAE Guardian, an advanced generation of intelligent, centralized software solutions that offer an easy-to-use “virtual command center” for safety mangers and incident commanders to seamlessly interconnect all of RAE Systems’ wireless sensors and wirelessly enabled handheld products, in addition to compatible third-party products. ProRAE Guardian expands the existing real-time display platform to monitor as many as 500 sensors in real time.
The open platform is expected to support future advancements that further enhance “at a glance” usability and intelligent remotemonitoring applications, said Durstenfeld.
ProRAE Guardian is an openplatform solution that consolidates data from multiple wireless detectors, including existing fixedwireless, mobile-wireless and portable- wireless sensors, into a single display for speedy deployments and 24/7 management of critical information. “This platform offers the next-generation integration of RAE Systems’ reliable and fieldproven ProRAE.NET and ProRAE Remote technologies, and provides backwards compatibility to these wireless products and gives users remote access to real-time data,” said Durstenfeld.
ProRAE Guardian provides safety and security managers the capability to continuously monitor large public-venue events offsite and provides added functionality by interoperating with third-party products, such as the Proengin AP4C chemical warfare agent (CWA) detector, Coastal Environmental WeatherPak meteorological monitor and TSI DustTrak particle monitor.
Key applications for ProRAE Guardian include sharing data with users at different and sometimes distant locations. For first responders, Durstenfeld said this means incident commanders can quickly set up and then monitor critical gas-detection information, including tracking gaseous plumes and identifying “hot spots” from anywhere outside the hazardous zone.
ProRAE Guardian is the latest addition to RAE Systems’ wireless gas-detection suite of products. It is expected to be available this fall.
BIOLOGICAL THREAT IDENTIFIER
Idaho Technology’s newest product is the RAZOR EX, a sensitive and reliable instrument for detecting and identifying biological threats in the field. The RAZOR EX is battery powered and uses freeze-dried reagents which require no refrigeration so it can be used remotely in the field, said Lou Banks, marketing manager, Biodefense, at Idaho Technology Inc. First responders use the RAZOR EX to test suspicious powders at the incident scene to make a rapid initial assessment.
The RAZOR EX utilizes real-time PCR technology, the same validated technology used in reference labs, to detect and identify bioterrorism pathogens in less than 30 minutes. “Because PCR is a widely validated testing method, there is high confidence with RAZOR EX results. Sensitivity levels are as low as 100 CFU/ml, and error rates are less than 1 percent,” said Banks. “Ten category A and B bioterrorism pathogens are simultaneously tested in a single 30 minute run.”
Coming soon for the Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System instrument, which is available only to the U. S. military, will be an influenza assay panel to rapidly test military personnel and their families for multiple flu strains. Banks said this PCR-based panel will significantly improve on traditional flu testing methods which can take more than 48-hours to diagnose using culture methods. The JBAIDS expanded influenza panel will provide results for six flu targets in less than an hour.
CWA DETECTOR
In May, Smiths Detection launched the LCD-NEXUS, a highly selective and sensitive CWA and TIC detector suitable for harsh environments. The portable system is capable of detecting harmful agents down to miosis levels, greatly increasing critical information needed by emergency responders and military personnel, said Tim Picciotti, vice president of military and emergency response, Americas, at Smiths Detection.
The LCD-NEXUS’s communications capabilities enable the systems to be networked together and remotely controlled, creating an invisible, low-maintenance and reliable CWA warning grid for enhanced perimeter protection.
Based on technology originally developed for the U.S. DoD’s Joint Chemical Agent Detector (JCAD) program, Picciotti said the LCDNEXUS is an extension of Smiths Detection’s successful LCD product which uses advanced ion mobility spectroscopy technology.
The LCD-NEXUS simultaneously samples for traces of CWAs and TICs to provide realtime warning for threats. “The system provides critical chemical details including class, type, concentration and dosage, as well as CWA identification,” said Picciotti. “By using dual dopant technology with unique miniature pre-concentrators, false alarms are reduced by increasing the sensitivity and the selectivity of the device.”
In addition to use in perimeter protection applications, the LCD-NEXUS will also serve fixed or moving platforms like ships and tightly confined areas where highly reliable and dependable detection solutions with low false alarm rates are necessary. ♦