The U.S. army quietly preparing for WMDs
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The US Army has quietly ordered a study to review how it trains, equips and deploys its 22 chemical battalions in a first thorough reconfiguration of its counter-weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities in decades.
Following the 2012/2013 Unified Quest war game, which exposed some of the operational difficulties inherent in deploying an effective counter-WMD force overseas, the idea now is to give the battalions more capacity and capability to act proactively, as opposed to simply “mopping up” chemical weapons that ground forces might find in hostile territory.
According to Defense News the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is heading up the study of what capabilities the battalions would need in order to act more as scouts, rather than as follow-up forces, service officials say, but no date is available for when the study will wrap up.
TRADOC officials were unable to respond to a request for more information.
The plan comes as a new Army counter-WMD strategy paper is being evaluated by the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, but Army officials declined to describe the paper or anticipate when it would be made public.
Seventeen of the 22 chemical battalions are in the Army National Guard and Reserve, with only five in the active forces. The Army also fields the 20th Support Command, which handles the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives missions.
