Abstract:

Congressman Curt Weldon, Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee of the House National Security Committee, criticized the U.S. interagency program to prevent leakage of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from the former Soviet Union for insufficient provision of equipment in the first-response training program. Weldon's remarks followed 4 November 1997 congressional testimony by a U.S. government official in charge of implementing the Nunn-Lugar II legislation's domestic preparedness/emergency response program. The Nunn-Lugar II program, as described by Defense Department official James Roberts, involves 'training the trainers who in turn will train the first responders.' According to Weldon, however, simple lecture-based training is an inadequate means of meeting the WMD threat; full-scale training for first-responders and hands-on equipment training are essential. Moreover, Weldon recommended that the program utilize the Nevada Test Site as a full-scope staging area to test response readiness. Despite these concerns, Weldon lauded the Nunn-Lugar II program for its efforts to provide counterproliferation training for law enforcement officials within the former Soviet Union. Thus far, the United States has provided counterproliferation training to 78 government officials from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Abstract Number:  19971310
Headline:  Defense Against Soviet-Era Weapons Lacks Adequate Response Training
Date:  11 November 1997
Bibliography:  Post-Soviet Nuclear & Defense Monitor, Vol. 4, Number 23, p. 4