Information Paper
DoD Biological Warfare Force Protection

• The Joint Biological Warfare Defense concept encompasses three pillars:

• Situational Awareness (Early Warning)

• Detection and Identification
• Warning and Reporting
• Reconnaissance

• Force Protection

• Individual Protection (Masks and Protective Suits)
• Collective Protection (to allow critical command and control operations and other unit operations to continue unencumbered while operating in a contaminated battlefield)
• Medical Protection (pre and post treatment/care)

• Recovery

• Decontamination (to allow unmasking and down-dressing from protective suits and regain lost operational tempo).

• The purpose of the doctrine is to maintain combat operations unencumbered by contamination and the wearing of the protective gear.

• Immunization is a critical factor in this integrated approach to force protection. No single means exists to ensure our men and women in uniform will be protected against this insidious form of warfare.

• DoD has promulgated guidance for protection of U.S. armed forces against the biological warfare threat through a DoD directive.

• DoD Directive 6205.3, DoD Immunization Program for Biological Warfare Defense.
  (in .pdf format)

• Our current policy for immunization stipulates that on order the following personnel, subject to special exceptions, should be immunized against validated biological warfare agents, for which suitable vaccines are available, in sufficient time to develop immunity before deployment to high-threat areas:

• Personnel assigned to high-threat areas.

• Personnel designated for immediate contingency deployment (crisis response).

• Personnel identified and scheduled for deployment on an imminent or on-going operation to a high-threat area.

• In order to ensure the maximum force protection capability, the senior DoD leadership (military and civilian) is studying the feasibility of expanding this population to a greater number of DoD personnel

• We are obligated to provide the best protection we are capable of providing to our troops -- in the case of protection against anthrax, this is a vaccine to provide individual immunity to this high-threat, lethal biological warfare agent.

• The directive also provides a process through which an immunization program decision is made.

• The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff identifies the high-threat countries that have weaponized biological warfare agents, or are suspected of having weaponized biological warfare agents, and the biological warfare agents they have weaponized.

• The Secretary of the Army (as the DoD executive agent for Chemical and Biological Defense), in conjunction with the Secretaries of the other Military Departments and the Chair of the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board, provides recommendations to the Assistant Secretary (Health Affairs) on vaccines available and DoD immunization requirements.

• ASD (Health Affairs) then directs the Secretaries of the Military Departments to begin immunization of the DOD personnel against specific biological warfare threat agents, and the Secretaries of the Military Departments execute the DoD Immunization Program for biological warfare defense in their departments.

• Other initiatives by the services include, but are not limited to:

• The Marine Corps' Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force, which is a strategic organization manned, trained and equipped to counter the growing terrorist treat.

• In FY98, the Army will field a new automatic chemical detector, the ACADA, which automatically detects nerve and mustard agents. It has a significantly lower false alarm rate than the current M8A1 system it will replace.

• The Army will field the M93A1 FOX NBC reconnaissance vehicle which has been upgraded with a five kilometer range standoff chemical detector, an automatic warning and reporting data transfer capability, and an integrated global positioning system.

• The Army will field an improved biological detector in FY99 when it activates its second Biological Detection Company.

• The Army Science and Technology Master Plan includes developing technology capable of detecting low asymptomatic or subsymptomatic concentrations of chemical agents in a small lightweight automatic chemical detector and a capability to evaluate individual chemical exposure after the fact.

• The Joint Program Manager for Biological Defense (JPM-BD) manages the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program (JVAP) which provides integrated systems management for the development, FDA licensure, manufacture, stockpiling, testing, distribution and disposal of medical biological defense products.

• These efforts will deter an adversary from using biological weapons by showing that the use of such weapons will not hinder the U.S.