“We must support the ongoing revolution in the life sciences by seeking to ensure
that resulting discoveries and their applications, used solely for peaceful and
beneficial purposes, are globally available. At the same time, we must be mindful
of the risks throughout history posed by those who sought to misuse the products
of new technologies for harmful purposes. Specifically, we must reduce the risk
that misuse of the life sciences could result in the deliberate or inadvertent release
of biological material in a manner that sickens or kills people, animals, or plants,
or renders unusable critical resources.”
~National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats, November 2009
Nuclear warheads are not the only weapons of mass destruction threatening the United
States and our allies. Because nuclear weapons require sophisticated technologies
and elements difficult to obtain, our nation’s adversaries may find chemical and
biological weapons more attractive.
DTRA and SCC-WMD are actively engaged in efforts to defend against chemical and
biological weapons. Our work in this arena has global reach, impacting everyone
from our men and women serving on the frontlines to American citizens in the heartland.
Protecting the Warfighter from Chemical and Biological Threats
DTRA and SCC-WMD are working hard to protect American warfighters and their allies
from threats posed by chemical and biological weapons. They provide a wide spectrum
of support to the military services, combatant commands and international partners,
from innovating new technologies to detect chemical and biological threats, to developing
new capabilities to protect them through programs such as the Transformational Medical
Technologies Initiative.
Safeguarding the Homeland from Chemical and Biological Threats
Not only do chemical and biological threats imperil our nation’s warfighters and
our allies; they are a danger to innocent civilians in the homeland and throughout
the world.
Defending the country against chemical and biological threats presents a wide variety
of challenges. DTRA works to tackle these challenges by partnering with interagency
organizations such as the Department of Health and Human Services, to prepare for
biological and chemical events. In cooperation with DoD and HHS, DTRA is using state-of-the-art
technology and executing our first agent-based, high performance computational analysis
system, which has resulted in a revolutionary pandemic influenza modeling capability.
DTRA recently completed part of a significant study that looked at a nine region
response effort with multiple interventions. The result of this study will help
the U.S. prepare for a possible pandemic, and is a perfect example of DTRA’s Reachback
capabilities, technical expertise and the value DTRA provides to other departments
and agencies.