Chapter 1: Overview

Introduction

The United States is beginning to realize that terrorists may attack individuals, institutions, and facilities with weapons of considerable destructive power. Under Secretary of State Bartholomew, during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in 1993, delivered an almost prophetic warning when he said,

"We are especially concerned about the spread of biological and toxin weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. …To date we have no evidence that any known terrorist organization has the capability to employ such weapons… However, we cannot dismiss the possibilities… It may be only a matter of time before terrorists do acquire and use these weapons."

While not employing true weapons of mass destruction, the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City portend the tremendous response necessary if a WMD is used in the US. Few communities, including military installations and facilities, have the full array of response assets and expertise required to adequately deal with the effects of radiological, biological, or chemical weapons or the necessary depth to sustain these response operations. They must rely on the concerted effort of local, state, and federal government agencies, cooperating with private organizations, to meet the technological, medical, and engineering demands posed by such attacks. The DoD anticipates requests from civilian agencies responding to WMD attacks and plans to augment the local response capability with expertise, manpower, and equipment. Conversely, the DoD may also require mutual community and state support to respond to attacks on military installations, bases, or ports necessary to deploy and sustain military forces employed overseas.

The DEPSECDEF directed the development of this plan which includes the concepts, model, direction, and funding required to deliver an appropriate, substantive, integrated military support to local, state, and federal government authorities responding to the use of WMD. This plan provides a comprehensive and cohesive program consistent with national policy and DoD Directives. It integrates and advances many ongoing efforts throughout the Department and specifically addresses issues identified in a number of studies and reports. The plan supports evolving interagency plans including the FRP and the evolving Interagency Plan for WMD Response. It specifically identifies the actions required to leverage the capabilities of United States military forces. These capabilities are vital to fill the gaps in civil response assets currently prepared to respond throughout the United States. Many cities, states, and other federal agencies simply do not have the focus, the equipment, or the trained personnel needed in such a demanding environment. This plan addresses the DoD role within that context and the emergency management tasks that may require a DoD response.

This plan develops capabilities for operational response to nuclear, biological, and chemical threats within the confines of the United States, its territories, and possessions. These capabilities can and should be used outside the United States when required to support validated Commander-in-Chief requirements.

For the purpose of this strategic plan, WMD include any weapon or device that are intended, or have the capability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release of toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors, a disease organism, or radiation or radioactivity.

The threat to the US posed by WMD is characterized by several factors. Recent events illustrate a real threat of domestic terrorism. Today terrorists have an improved ability to collect information, raise money, and disseminate rhetoric. Advanced information technology available through the Internet allows extremists to communicate widely and efficiently. Additionally, publicly available databases serve as repositories for technical information relating to weapons production.

Another important factor is that WMD, together with the materials and technology used to make them, are increasingly available. Many of these materials are widely available for legitimate commercial purposes. Moreover, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union increased concerns about the protection, control, and accountability of WMD, related materials and technologies, and the potential unemployment and proliferation of thousands of scientists skilled in this field. Transnational threats arising from the collapse of the eastern bloc, including the development of Chem-Bio capabilities by terrorist organizations, have increased the potential for attacks within our borders. A final factor is the relative ease of manufacture and delivery of WMD. Facilities required to produce radiological, biological, and chemical weapons are small and hard to detect, compared with those associated with nuclear weapons.

The Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act contains several findings which define the requirement for an enhanced domestic response capability. Among these findings are:

"... the capability of potentially hostile nations and terrorist groups to acquire nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical weapons is greater than at any time in history."

"There is a significant and growing threat of attack of weapons of mass destruction on targets that are not military targets in the usual sense."

"... the threat posed to the citizens of the United States by nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical weapons delivered by unconventional means is significant and growing."

"The United States lacks adequate planning and countermeasures to address the threat of nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical terrorism."

Planning Principles

The plan underscores the principle that domestic disaster relief is fundamentally a State mission falling with the State’s broad authority/responsibility for public safety and welfare within its borders. Consequence management of a WMD incident is a category of disaster relief over which the State usually will have primary responsibility. Federal assistance in WMD consequence management situations generally will be in support of the State’s disaster relief efforts, to include efforts in response to a WMD incident. Recognizing these basic principles, the plan focuses on filling the void in the State’s initial assessment capability and the United States’ ability to rapidly facilitate required assistance in excess of the State’s capability to respond.

Two organizing principles were considered in developing this plan:

To structure the force based on the State disaster relief mission

To structure the force based on the Federal national defense/MSCA mission

The team chose the Federal mission as the organizing principle. Under this organizing principle, the immediate response elements act as the tip of the Federal MSCA spear. Although immediate WMD response would be in a State status, under the control of the Governor, the unit’s force structure would also support homeland defense, MSCA missions, and provide a secondary warfighting capability.

This organizing principle is consistent with the use of Federal military funds and other resources in support of this plan, and the extension of Federal military personnel benefits to National Guard personnel assigned to units engaged in these operations. This choice also avoids the legal and policy difficulties inherent in Federally funding and organizing a National Guard unit solely to conduct a State mission and is consistent with the general organizing principle of the National Guard for other missions.

The operational concepts outlined in this plan are based on the principles noted above. The Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) Elements, in their immediate response capacity, will assist in confirming the nature of a WMD attack. In most instances, the response elements will remain under State control. Under a worst-case scenario, Federal resources may also be requested very early in a WMD incident. We must anticipate these cases in planning for a coordinated local, state and federal response.