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Subject: New worldwide threats prompt Pentagon to overhaul chem-bio defenses
From: David P
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From: imbibe@mindspring.com
New worldwide threats prompt Pentagon to overhaul chem-bio defenses
By Lara Seligman and Erin Banco, 1/9/2023, Politico
The Defense Dept is overhauling its approach to countering biological and
chemical weapons, as potential adversaries such as Russia and China rush to
create threats that are easier to use and can evade traditional defenses.
Officials are launching a new plan to develop medical treatments, vaccines and
personal protective equipment that can adapt to a range of evolving biological
and chemical threats, said Ian Watson, DoD’s deputy assistant secretary for
chemical and
biological defense.
That’s a change for DoD, which traditionally has developed tools to counter
a specific list of biological and chemical threats. Recent advances in
technology allow potential adversaries to manipulate existing pathogens and
toxins and create new ones,
leading to an almost infinite number of new hazards for troops. Adding to the
complexity of the problem, those dangers can be naturally occurring,
accidental or deliberate, Watson said.
He previewed the new framework, officially called the Chemical and Biological
Defense Program’s Enhanced Medical Countermeasures Approach, in an exclusive
interview.
It’s no longer just the special operations forces fighting terrorists who
might be exposed to chemical or biological weapons deployed by regional actors
such as Iran or Syria, Watson said. Now, the problem has evolved to threaten
the entire force.
U.S. officials are particularly concerned about adversaries that already have
advanced chemical and biological capabilities and have proven themselves
willing to use them. Russia and China now have the technology necessary both
to tweak current threats
from toxins to naturally occurring pathogens — to make them more deadly
and to create new weapons, Watson said.
“We see what we have to prepare for, for the National Defense Strategy, for
the pacing threat of China and Russia,” Watson said. “We see not only the
technology, the intel, the intent, and also the potential impact it would have
to our forces if we
don’t prepare.”
“It’s a different scale,” he added, “and it’s a different
environment in which our soldiers are going to be asked to potentially find
it.”
The move to develop tests, treatments and vaccines for a range of threats
marks a shift in strategy for the department. For years, DoD responded to
potential chemical and biological attacks in the field by developing tools to
combat a specific list of
hazards. But the list continued to grow. Now, the U.S. is adapting, Watson
said, adding that it will likely become more difficult over time to determine
nature and origin.
“The technology is accelerating at such a pace that the threat profile and
the diversity of the threat and the attributes of the threat have increased
and will continue to do so at a quick clip,” Watson said. “We can’t
develop a countermeasure
for every single one of those, every single toxin, every single biological
potentiality, every single chemical potentiality.
“Our ability to simply sink endless amounts of defense dollars into a single
countermeasure for every single threat that can easily be modified by our
adversaries is no longer a solution,” he added.
DoD is releasing the new approach ahead of its first-ever Biodefense Posture
Review, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for in Nov 2021. The
strategy was slated to come out last fall; Watson said it is expected
“soon.”
Gregory Koblentz, the director of the Biodefense Graduate Program at George
Mason University, said the decision by the administration to look more
holistically at chemical and biological threats is a strategic national
security decision — one that
could help the U.S. keep pace with countries such as China, Russia and Iran.
“There’s definitely a much higher kind of salience and appreciation of how
nation-states are using these technologies,” Koblentz said. “Until fairly
recently, the focus has mostly been on ISIS and Al Qaeda using chemical and
biological terrorism.
This [strategy] might be another kind of paradigm shift.”
The change in approach has been shaped in large part by the Covid-19 pandemic,
Watson said. It can be impossible to tell whether a new threat is naturally
occurring or intentionally manipulated by adversaries, but either way, the
countermeasures are
often the same, he stressed.
DoD learned lessons from the outbreak on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt in March 2020, which sickened hundreds of crew members — one
sailor died — and sidelined the ship in Guam for weeks. The incident had
ramifications beyond the
carrier: The captain was fired, the acting Navy secretary resigned, and the
service was plunged into chaos.
The Roosevelt outbreak showed the importance of identifying a chemical or
biological threat early to before it hits crews and affects military assets,
Watson said.
“We took combat power off station because of a disease that took down the
crew,” Watson said. “And so the early indications and warnings where we
can actually separate and identify those things preclude us from having to go
down below readiness and
keep our forces not only on station, but how they’re supposed to operate.”
DoD received an additional $200 million for fiscal 2023 to develop the new
strategy and is planning to spend $1.2 billion over the next five years,
Watson said, but more money is needed.
Watson said it is impossible for the U.S. to continue to pour millions of
dollars into preparing for every known and future chemical and biological
threat — it has to change course and develop a broad range of tools that
will help protect troops in the
field for whatever they may encounter.
“We can never ever protect the warfighter in entirety the way we’ve been
doing if we don’t start switching to this in the future,” he said.
One problem is the evolving threat posed by pharmaceutical-based agents that
are easy to stockpile and hide from traditional intelligence-gathering methods.
Over the past several years, China has ramped up its production of fentanyl,
contributing to a global opioid crisis. And Russia has used nerve agents,
namely Novichok, in assassination attempts. Experts warn that U.S. adversaries
could use such
pharmaceutical-based agents in large-scale attacks.
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