Special Operations.Com

AFJI Special Operations-related articles

Note: All articles are reproduced here by written permission of Armed Forces Journal International.  Do not reproduce.

John G. Roos

Countering The Bio Threat
Recent Breakthroughs Give US Forces A Limited Ability To Detect Deadly Biological Warfare Agents

It's only a matter of time before US military forces will confront the perilous aftermath of a chemical or biological attack.

According to US intelligence estimates, because of the US' ability to unleash an overwhelming retaliatory response against any nation known to be involved in a chemical or biological attack against US forces or property, the most likely near-term threats are from shadowy offshoots of known terrorist organizations. That's why, most analysts agree, the use of either of these so-called weapons of mass destruction is probably more likely to result from a terrorist action directed at a "soft" target in the United States or US property or interests overseas than from an armed conflict against an organized, identifiable foe.

Recognizing that preventing any type of terrorist threat is the most effective means of countering such activities, the US government recently created a Terrorism Warning Group within the Central Intelligence Agency. This organization's primary function is to provide early warning of a terrorist threat to military and civilian officials. In parallel with this initiative, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counter-terrorism account has received a windfall of more than $350 million in additional funding during the past two years.

If the funds expended on these preemptive measures fail to thwart a chemical or biological attack in the US or against US property overseas, the US Army's Technical Escort Unit (TEU) and the Marine Corps' Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), under the umbrella of the soon-to-be-established "Chem-Bio Quick Response Force," stand ready to assist in lifesaving and damage-limiting activities.

The TEU and CBIRF, of course, would also play critical roles on a battlefield following a chemical or biological attack by an opposing force against a US military unit. In that domain, however, the efforts of the TEU and the CBIRF would be augmented by those of thousands of other US military personnel with the specialized training and equipment needed to limit the deadly effects from the attack.

GRAPPLING WITH THE BIO THREAT

Thanks largely to the efforts of a handful of US and European industries, plus considerable work by several government-operated research facilities, most US military ground forces probably are now marginally prepared to defend themselves against a battlefield chemical- or biological-agent attack. Some units, particularly armored elements with positive-overpressurized vehicles, could fight on a contaminated battlefield for as long as their on-board ammunition and fuel supplies hold out. Eventually, however, they'd be forced to take refuge in an uncontaminated area. There, they would decontaminate their vehicles, rearm and refuel, and prepare to return to combat.

With the exception of combating enemy forces, these same actions-finding an uncontaminated area and decontaminating operational equipment-would also be paramount considerations during a response to a chemical or biological attack against a domestic target in the US or elsewhere.

But traditional emphasis on investing scarce research and procurement funds on chemical, rather than biological, defensive efforts has created a wide gap between Western nations' capabilities to respond to those very different threats. Moreover, the technological hurdles that had to be overcome in developing effective biological detection devices were far more formidable than those that had to be cleared in order to reliably sniff out chemical contaminants. Gradually, though, even those obstacles are falling.

A major breakthrough in fielding a dedicated biological detection system came to fruition last October, when the US Army outfitted the 310th Chemical Company-a Reserve Component unit assigned to Fort McClellan, AL-with 35 Biological Integrated Defense Systems (BIDS). Costing about $1 million each, the HMMWV-mounted units can detect at least four types of biological agents and type-classify them within 45 minutes. While a 45-minute processing time is better than having no classification capability, it's clearly far longer than what military commanders (or civilian authorities) would consider adequate.

In an effort to show how that warning time could be reduced, in June the Pentagon's new Joint Program Office for Biological Defense (JPO-Bio) conducted an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) at Dugway Proving Grounds, UT. During this "Bio 9-1-1" demonstration, Army and Marine Corps specialists tested several new biological detection and contamination remediation devices.

One of the most promising results was achieved by modifying the BIDS with large-volume air samplers and electronic readers (in place of the manual technique currently used) for processing potential evidence of a biological agent. The ACTD showed that the modified BIDS could detect about twice as many biological agents as the fielded models, and could identify the particular organism in about five minutes.

One of the keys to the success of the modified BIDS is the detector "ticket" used in the sampling device. Similar in function to litmus paper, the ticket was developed by the US Navy Medical Research and Development Command.

Another breakthrough is seen in the BIDS' unique Fiber Optic Wave Guide (FOWG), the result of a rapid-prototype development effort. The FOWG can assay a suspected liquid contaminant simultaneously for up to four biological agents. In the so-called "Mantis" variant of the FOWG, a credit card-sized cartridge containing antibody-coated fiber optic probes can complete the assay process in about 10 minutes. The probe cartridges can be replaced in a matter of seconds.

Other promising biological detection and remediation systems that have attracted Pentagon officials' attention include a 14-person Forward Deployed Laboratory, with 400 square feet of work space; the New Horizons Model 3550 Microluminometer (also called a bioluminometer), which reacts in about five minutes to the presence of molecules used to transfer energy within living cells; Hand-Held Assays, in which antibodies bound to colored beads indicate a suspected BW agent; and Personal Aerosol Exposure Monitors, simple BW agent collection devices that would record wearers' exposures to particular agents and which could be used to corroborate other devices' data.

CLEANUP

Where as these and other sampling and classification devices will give US forces and civilian authorities a capability to identify various biological agents and determine the boundaries of a contaminated area, they aren't designed to rapidly decontaminate the large vehicles and heavy equipment involved in biological remediation operations. That job might go to another specialized item-one that also was evaluated in the US in June.

Developed by Germany's Alfred Karcher under a contract from the Federal German Office for Defense Technology and Procurement, the mobile Decontamination System for Large Vehicles was tested under desert conditions by German forces at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ. Designed for set-up by two persons in 15 minutes, the system is used to decontaminate, detoxify, or disinfect vehicles affected by radiological, chemical, and biological contaminants.

Using a high-pressure, rotating-water-nozzle pre-cleaning process, followed by hot-gas decontamination, the system can decontaminate up to 6 tanks or 10 wheeled vehicles per hour. Because the system is far less Labor-intensive than other methods of decontaminating large vehicles, it's likely to attract widespread interest.

US military officials readily admit that efforts to counter the use of biological weapons are still in their infancy. But, they point out, research on detecting and countering these weapons of mass destruction has picked up considerable steam since the 1995 nerve gas attack in a Tokyo subway. The principal challenge now, they say, is to maintain an appropriate balance between funding near-term equipment fielding programs while making the long-term investment necessary to exploit the most promising research activities.

 

---

Armed Forces Journal INTERNATIONAL
8201 Greensboro Drive
Suite 611
McLean, VA 22102
phone: 703.848.0490
email us: wwwafji@afji.com
If you want to request a subscription, renew your existing subscription, or notify us of an address change, please email us at circ@afji.com