A relevant Chemical Corps in the contemporary operational environment

CML Army Chemical Review, Sept, 2003 by Thomas A. Duncan, II

Over the last 12 years, the U.S. military has been involved in a number of diverse missions. Operations in the first Gulf War, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, the war against terrorism, and the Iraq War have taught us many lessons. Studying these missions and conflicts throughout the world has shown common trends. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence summarizes these trends in a white paper, "Capturing the Operational Environment," published in 2000. (1) This white paper (that I refer to throughout this article) was aimed at capturing the current and future operational environment for U.S. military operations and was intended to inform military leaders about significant trends that would help them focus training.

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The contemporary operational environment (COE) (2) has many implications for the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. While its doctrinal foundations are sound, to remain relevant, the Corps's leadership must change the way it thinks and trains soldiers. In this article, I discuss how the common trends and characteristics of military operations in the COE apply to the training of chemical soldiers.

Common Trends

Although the world today can appear chaotic, there are observable trends that will likely continue into the foreseeable future. Several of these trends were identified in the TRADOC white paper. In this article, I examine the five (3) that I believe are most relevant to the training of chemical soldiers:

* The dominant actors will still be nation states; however, some power will shift to nontraditional actors.

* The U.S. homeland will be increasingly exposed to attack.

* (The world's environmental conditions (such as water shortages, pollution, and climate changes) will lead to increased international and international tensions.

* The socioeconomic gap between the haves and the have-nots will widen, leading to global tensions that force many groups to adopt terrorism and asymmetrical means to promote their agendas.

* The proliferation of advanced technologies/ weapons (such as conventional weapons, weapons of mass destruction [WMD], and chemical/ biological weapons) will continue.

Nontraditional Actors

Traditionally, the Army has been able to focus on defeating other nation states to achieve strategic goals, and it is important to remember that the United States must still be prepared to counter regional- or state-centered threats. However, over the last decade, transnational threats (such as terrorists, international crime, drug trafficking, and culturally or nationally motivated groups) have also become a concern. (4) These nontraditional actors now force the Chemical Corps to improve staff integration and create better nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) vulnerability analysis products.

The three NBC attack checklists in Field Manual (FM) 3-14, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Vulnerability Analysis, ask, "Are there known terrorist threat capabilities?" (5) However, these checklists focus on more traditional threats and provide us with an example of what the Chemical Corps must do to remain relevant in the COE. It must continue to refine its doctrine to arm soldiers with the tools they need to predict the enemy threat accurately. Specifically, FM 3-14 needs to be updated. As an example, the NBC attack checklists could be expanded to ask additional questions about the likely terrorist targets in our area of operations and interest and the probable delivery means.

Our Corps must also continue to improve training at all levels. Institutional, operational, and self-directed learning need to include more elements of the COE. Every training plan should be balanced regarding conventional and nonconventional threats. For chemical units to remain relevant, they must be armed first with a vulnerability analysis that puts them on the battlefield in the right place at the right time to mitigate the threat. To accomplish this, the COE must be taken into consideration.

For instance, if U.S. forces are using an aerial port of debarkation (APOD) in a forward-deployed area, and the enemy has the capability to deliver persistent chemical munitions to deny us the use of that APOD, a decontamination company may be one of the highest-priority units in the deployment order.

Increasing Risk

Nontraditional actors also increase the risk to homeland security. The U.S. military currently has FM 3-11.21, Multiservice Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Aspects of Consequence Management, as a doctrinal guide for dealing with the increased risk of NBC incidents in the United States. According to this manual, "U.S. forces may be required to support civil authorities in domestic or foreign situations/incidents due to the deliberate or unintentional use of NBC weapons or materials." (6)

While the Department of Defense is not likely to be the lead federal agency in the event of an NBC incident in the United States, it will continue preparing to serve in a supporting role. To achieve this, the Chemical Corps should expand its interaction and training with first responders and other federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Chemical units need to become more involved in annual training exercises with these agencies to ensure that they are ready to provide the NBC reconnaissance and decontamination support the agencies need. Remaining relevant today means allowing chemical units to have the resources (time, money, and increased training opportunities with other relevant agencies) to make them more flexible by participating in COE-focused training.