In Case of Emergency…
situation with many advantages: “Each installation has the same set of equipment, so when I move from Nellis to Travis, I have the same equipment assigned. It comes across the spectrum of CBRN so there is equipment for each type of response. Each of our responders has the same set of hazmat gear, and it is theirs until they leave the service. So it is not as if I go to Langley and when it is time for me to rotate to Charleston I turn in old gear and get new gear issued – specifically this is the respirator, the MSA Firehawk mask.”
In terms of equipment, the USAF was the major champion for both the Joint Biological Standoff Detection System Block I and II programs. Block I needed to have some changes to the user requirement document before it could be accepted and Block II was a casualty of the latest round of JPEO CBD cuts. Air Force bases, with their long straight areas, i.e., runways, are one of the best environments for all kinds of standoff to work, so what is going to replace it? Will will see the use of remote patrolling UGVs, such as the MDARS/JFPASS system, or a greater reliance on squad sweeps with handheld PCR? “The USAF most definitely retains an interest in all standoff detection,” said Bill Thomas “but the technology is simply not mature enough yet. As such, we will continue to support technology development for standoff and detect to warn capability while continuing to operate with what we have. It continues to be a priority going into the POM (Program Objective Memorandum) process, meanwhile without the standoff capability we rely quite a lot on the sort of capability that you touched on. We are working Joint Portal Shield and being part of the Joint Bio Point Detection System – these are gap fillers until some kind of standoff capability proves successful.” While standoff is a priority, what are the other ones? Mr Connors elaborated: “The specific goals with regard to the AF Emergency Management career field are to lead the US Department of Defense in Emergency Management, and be the ‘go to’ source for installation CBRN defense. Also, we aim to develop military and civilian emergency managers into a trusted corps of advisors with superior
analytical, planning and management skills that can easily integrate with our civilian counterparts if directed.” These are bold claims and, of course, easy things to say, but to become the ‘go to’ source for installation CBRN defence is a big ask, when not all installations are Air Force related and the Army and Marines might have strong opinions of their own. How then does the Air Force see itself accomplishing these goals? CMSgt Watler-Hall laughed: “That’s a question! What we are doing right now is helping ourselves to grow into that position. We conduct an apprenticeship that takes our airmen to the stage where they are fully prepared for any incident that might happen at their installation, and then we provide the supplementary training through the years and we evaluate it. They go through three evaluations at the installation levels alone. If they come to the training events that they hold off- site they are getting tested and evaluated as to what they are supposed to be doing at the installation level – on the missions we need to execute. With the hazmat technician course coming online for us, that is preparing us better to be the full responder for any type of incident that might happen. We just need more people!”
The latter is the most important element in the Air Force’s claim. Whilst many other forces are being forced to either draw down their CBRN troops or re-skill them with other elements, the Air Force is in an active recruitment drive! This seems rather a surprise, until Chief Master Sargent Watler-Hall explains that the emergency managers are actually the beneficiary of re-skilling elsewhere: “We are fortunate. We have Chief Master Sargent Lewis at HQ Air Force. He is the civil engineer career field manager for all civil engineers and he advocates positions for us. In the Air Force there are a certain number of career fields that we don’t need this many people for, while in other fields we are crying out for them. In the logistics career field, for example, they don’t require the number of people they have, in other words they have too many, whereas in EM we require more people. So we offset the requirement for EM
Will Emergency Managers become the norm as forces rationalise ©USAF
with one of those career fields that don’t require many people any more. We are leveraging the resources of the Air Force against the needs of the Air Force.” The Air Force may well be the model for other military CBRN forces around the world. A lot of what the Bundeswehr is doing in CBRN (see CBRNe World, Winter, 2011) is making it drift towards emergency management, and the parallels are there. It is also interesting to compare the size of the USAF emergency managers (1,800) to other CBRN forces, which in traditional CBRN states tend to be far larger as a way of maintaining capability whilst slimming down manpower. Indeed, the emphasis that the USAF puts on training is an important one, with many of their active members able to leave the force and become civilian hazmat techs (if that is what they want) and then refresh their skills as a National Guard or reservist. While other armies might sniff, it will be interesting to see how many of them eventually end up following the US Air Force model!
CBRNe South America 2012, 13-14 March, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. More information on
www.icbrnevents.com 18 CBRNe WORLD February 2012
www.cbrneworld.com
CBRNeWORLD
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