CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL DEFENSE (ACD&P)

Abstract

Operational forces have an immediate need to survive, safely operate, and sustain operations in a Chemical and Biological (CB) threat environment across the continuum of global, contingency, special operations/low intensity conflict, counternarcotics, and other high-risk missions. This program element supports the Advanced Component Development and Prototypes (ACD&P) of medical and non-medical CB defensive equipment and materiel. Congress directed centralized management of Department of Defense (DoD) medical and non-medical CB Defense initiatives. DoD missions for civil support operations have recently expanded and have resulted in providing focus to develop technologies to support CB counterterrorism initiatives. Projects within BA4 are structured to consolidate Joint and Service-unique tasks within four commodity areas: contamination avoidance, individual and collective force protection, decontamination, and medical countermeasures. ADC&P is conducted for an array of chemical, biological, and toxin detection and warning systems providing early warning, collector concentrators, generic detection, improved reagents, and decontamination systems using solutions that will remove and/or detoxify contaminated materiel without damaging combat equipment, personnel, or the environment. CB sensors and diagnostics enhance the Departments environmental and medical surveillance efforts by improving the monitoring and surveillance of threats and forces preparing for and engaged in military operations. These efforts are required to enable military commanders and the Military Health System to prevent, treat, and mitigate threats to individual Service Members and military units. Integration of CB sensor and diagnostic data from the programs in this ACD&P will also be usable within the homeland security and Federal public health common operating pictures. The Department of Defense is responsible for research, development, acquisition, and deployment of medical countermeasures to prevent or mitigate the health effects of CB threats to the Armed Forces and directs strategic planning for and oversight of programs to support medical countermeasures development and acquisition for our Armed Forces personnel. The CB medical threat to the Armed Forces, in contrast with public health threats to U.S. citizens, encompasses all potential or continuing enemy actions that can render a Service Member combat ineffective. CB medical threats, because they apply as a whole to military units deployed on a specific mission and/or operations, may result in the unit being unable to complete its mission. CB medical countermeasures developed by DoD, unlike those developed to support U.S. population, must support military commanders practical operational requirements and deployment strategies and must emphasizes prevention of injury and illness and protection of the force. Preventive measures in this ACD&P, such as vaccines against the most likely biological threat agents and traditional / non-traditional chemical agent prophylaxis, conserves fighting strength, decreases the logistics burden by reducing the need for larger deployed hospital footprint and greater demand for tactical and strategic medical evacuation, and satisfies the need for greater flexibility in military planning and operations. When vaccines and other prophylactic medical countermeasures are not available, efforts on this ACD&P support pre-hospitalization treatment, en-route care, hospital care, and long-term clinical outcomes. Specific items in this category include improvements to CB diagnostics and therapeutics to mitigate the consequences of biologic agents and exposure to ionizing radiation due to nuclear or radiological attacks. DoD is the only Federal activity conducting ACD&P on these prophylactic, diagnostic, and therapeutic CB medical countermeasures. The Department of Defense coordinates its efforts with the Departments of Health and Human Services to promote synergy and minimize redundancy. The Department of Defense ensures coordination by participating in the Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise interagency strategic planning process ("One Portfolio"). The Department of Defense's longstanding experience and success in CB medical countermeasure research, development, acquisition, and deployment not only ensures protection of the Armed Forces, it also accelerates and improves the overall national efforts in CB medical countermeasure research, development, and acquisition because of its unique facilities, testing capabilities, and trained and experienced personnel. ACD&P also supports the development of updated test capabilities to evaluate Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense systems. Also included is the Techbase Technology Transition effort which validates high-risk/high-payoff technologies that could significantly improve Warfighter capabilities. Key efforts within this PE are in support of the FY14 policy priorities for Countering Biological Threats. Approximately $92.9M supports the priority to "Promote global health security efforts through building and improving international capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, whether caused by natural, accidental, or deliberate events." Approximately $45.8M supports the priority to "Expand our capability to prevent, attribute, and apprehend those engaged in biological weapons proliferation or terrorism, with a focus on facilitating data sharing and knowledge discovery to improve integrated capabilities." Approximately $124.0M supports the priority to "Leverage science, technology, and innovation through domestic and international partnerships and agreements to improve global capacity to respond to and recover from biological incidents." The projects in this program element support efforts in the technology development phase of the acquisition strategy and are therefore correctly placed in Budget Activity 4.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2014
Source ID
0603884BP_4_0400_PB_2014
Change Summary Explanation
Funding: FY14 -$71.509M Other Adjustments (CA4 +$7,050K; DE4 +$7,623K; IP4 -$1,000K; IS4 +$2,527K; MB4 -$71,566K; MC4 -$14,947K; TE4 +$2,900K; TT4 -$4,096K) Schedule: N/A Technical: N/A
Service Agency Name
Chemical and Biological Defense Program

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biological Factors
  • Biological Sciences
  • Chemical Warfare
  • Chemical Warfare Agents
  • Command And Control
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Equine Encephalitis
  • Health Services
  • Homeland Defense
  • Information Systems
  • Medical Personnel
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Therapy
  • Viruses
  • Warning Systems

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Critical Infrastructure Protection in CBRN and WMD Threats.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology

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