The National Guard Role in Weapons of Mass Destruction Response
Abstract
The threat to the United States society by an attack involving a weapon of mass destruction is a well-founded and often addressed concern for our national security. This Strategy Research Project defines the background for this national concern and presents a summary of our current national security documents and strategies for responding to such a threat. Responsibility for WMD defense rests in a number of federal and state agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Defense, in its role of military support to civil authorities. The newly appointed first response mechanism for the Department of Defense is the National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Civil Support Team (formerly called Military Support Detachment-Rapid Assessment Initial Detection team; MSD-RAID). This SRP further discusses the roles and responsibilities of the WMD-Civil Support Team concept, and analyzes its utility in light of current threat and capabilities. There are a number of current challenges and concerns to the use of the National Guard in such a role, and this SRP discusses the most important ones, and summarizes the issue in terms of application to current campaign planning criteria for joint operations; that is, adequacy, feasibility, acceptability, and compliance with doctrine.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 10, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA377638
Entities
People
- Randal E. Thomas
Organizations
- United States Army War College