By Bryan Bender
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department this month kicked off a multimillion-dollar effort to develop new technologies capable of defeating WMD facilities, predicting the outcome of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack and otherwise beefing up WMD defense efforts through a combination of new weaponry and computer analysis tools, according to defense officials and documents (see GSN, Sept. 16).

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has published a series of documents outlining a broad new response program to the threat of weapons of mass destruction and is seeking multiple companies and other technology developers to meet a variety of mission objectives.  The agency’s Technology Development Directorate is spearheading the multifaceted effort.

“The mission of the Technology Development Directorate is to reduce national defense and homeland security WMD threats by conducting innovative research and development supporting the nation’s WMD-related counterforce, consequence assessment and defeat technologies,” according to documents published Oct. 4 intended to begin a dialogue with industry participants.

The program will focus on weapons and targeting technologies to attack WMD stocks; hazard assessment technologies to determine collateral damage and other atmospheric and effects of chemical, biological radiological, nuclear and high explosive incidents or accidents; modeling and simulation technologies; and systems engineering expertise to integrate diverse and emerging technologies.

Weapons and Targeting Technologies

In the area of new weaponry, DTRA is seeking proposals that that can defeat WMD-related facilities.  These weapons could be of different types, according to program documents:

*         thermobaric weapons that cause significant blast energy to cause large-scale failures in WMD structures;

*         weapons exploded both above and below the ground causing airblast, penetration, fragmentation, cratering and ground shock;

*         corrosive and incendiary weapons that exploit nonexplosive techniques for destroying a target;

*         portable technologies to enable U.S. troops to render harmless chemical and biological weapons; and

*         new tools for special operations forces to accomplish such missions safely.

The agency is calling on contractors to “develop a full spectrum of tactical agent defeat capabilities that will provide the warfighter with the ability to destroy chemical and/or biological agents,” according to the project description.

Consequence Assessment

While developing a series of new active measures to destroy or neutralize WMD threats, the agency is also looking for new technologies and software tools to assess the aftermath of a successful chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-explosive attack.

The agency is searching for solutions to problems associated with accurately characterizing and predicting the consequences of a WMD attack.  These include how gases are transported in the atmosphere; the physics of how weapons of mass destruction degrade, weaken or become less potent over time; the biological science whereby chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-explosive materials induce predictable symptoms that can lead to incapacitation or death; and sensors that help measure the dispersion of hazardous materials in the atmosphere, land or water.

This job falls to the agency’s Consequence Assessment branch, which is seeking to “develop methodologies and technologies necessary to empower the military and civilian authorities to assess a weapons of mass destruction event and react in a manner that reduces risks and saves lives,” according to the agency.

Other Efforts

The agency will round out its new push for anti-WMD capabilities by developing new simulation tools.

One major effort in this area will be the Hard, Deeply Buried Target Defeat Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration.  This technology demonstration is designed to provide the U.S. Strategic Command with a computer-based, fast-running analysis tool enabling weapons planners to compare and evaluate different attack options against geologically hardened targets.

For example, if military planners are ordered to attack an underground weapons complex — perhaps one hidden in a mountain — new analysis tools would be helpful to determine whether subjecting it to nuclear attack would be a more effective option than a conventional one.

“Evaluations provided by the new tool will include, but not be limited to, probability predictions of a total target defeat (defined as tunnel collapse), probability of functional defeat, the collateral effects produced by the attack, and methods/assessments of damage to the target,” according to the program documents.  “The fast running tool will incorporate, as part of its final product, more refined and higher fidelity evaluations of target response [than is] performed at … the U.S. national laboratories.”

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