Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 51

COUNTERING WMD

beyond the forces permanently stationed on the peninsula to include BCTs tasked to deploy and fight with
the division. For example, the 82nd Airborne Division,
as the global response force, also shares a responsibility
for executing CWMD operations; however, it differs
from the 2nd Infantry Division in that it must prepare
for a much broader and more inclusive range of potential adversaries and operating environments.
Other divisions could have a share of the potential
CWMD tasks in troubled locations around the world.
Consequently, in the future, regionally aligned forces
to the Pacific, as well as rotational BCTs to the Korean
theater of operations, will also be required to train
on the CWMD mission set. Given this wide range of
possible operating environments, commanders should
understand the basic CWMD tactical tasks and prepare their forces accordingly.
The requirement to prepare forces for CWMD operations is also apparent across the Army’s training and
support institutions. At the time of this writing, the
Army’s Capabilities and Integration Center is developing the CWMD requirements and associated capabilities for the Army of 2020.
Additionally, the National Training Center and the
Joint Readiness Training Center, in coordination with
the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear,

and High-Yield Explosives (CBRNE) Command and
other organizations, and in collaboration with the 2nd
Infantry Division, are expanding their facilities and
changing exercise scenarios to incorporate CWMD
missions in iteratively greater complexity.6
Also, the Mission Command Center of Excellence
and the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence are
working to capture the lessons learned from each of
these training rotations and incorporate those lessons
into emerging doctrine for CWMD operations.
While these organizations continue to develop the
tasks to support the CWMD fight, numerous others
are making major contributions to the force in training
and equipping, in contributing subject-matter expertise
and advanced modeling and simulation, and in serving as a conduit to the interagency community. These
include the Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint
Improvised Explosive Device-Defeat Organization, the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Strategic
Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass
Destruction, and the newly activated Standing Joint
Force Headquarters for WMD Elimination.
This growing community of interest demonstrates
the large number of joint and interagency stakeholders
in CWMD.
Meanwhile, the 2nd Infantry Division, in partnership with the Republic of Korea (ROK)
Army, has conducted a two-year-long
series of increasingly complex CWMDfocused training events. These have included both live and virtual training exercises,
leveraging the training venues available in
the ROK.
Beginning with a basic command,
control, computers, and intelligence integration exercise, training has since evolved
into combined ROK-U.S. exercises, integrating conventional forces, special operations forces, specialized CBRNE elements,
and explosive ordnance disposal elements.
This process provided numerous lessons
and revealed a number of capability gaps
associated with the division’s ability to
Soldiers take a break during a mission at Camp Stanley, South Korea, 9 November
2011. The 23rd Chemical Battalion and 110th Chemical Battalion soldiers from
execute CWMD operations.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., participated in Operation Saber Strike II, a comDurin g a recent conference with Naval
bined U.S. and Republic of Korea exercise that focused on detection of, identificaPostgraduate School students, Maj. Gen.
tion of, and defense against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
Thomas Vandal, commanding general
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Antwaun Parrish, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2014

49