CBRNeWORLD
By Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, (Col. Ret.)
hazards and chemicals (TIH & TICs). Teams must be equipped with the latest technology to survey and monitor contaminated areas, as well as conduct or arrange remediation as required to form the base capability. Sampling and analysing TICs in the field will significantly increase reaction times in emergency support operations. A radiac monitoring service must be offered in support of emergency support services and others. This is a significant capability provision gap around the globe at present. This service can identify the extent of contamination and ensure that exposure to individuals is kept within acceptable limits, still allowing them to perform their duties. It is also important for some governments that these teams have the ability to work under a military chain of command and in some cases operators will require a reserve type military engagement. With most countries this should be achievable.
Covering the Bases - TEPIDOIL/DOTMLPF Training – It is essential that the commercial capability stays at the forefront of CBRN capability, as the military and emergency services have managed hitherto. The key will be to have a wide network of experts to advise on developments, a coherent and robust lessons-learnt process and a dynamic training team. By covering a range of areas, such as TIH and CBRN, these teams should be better placed than their predecessors, who have very rarely strayed from their civil or military lanes.
Equipment – With flatter commercial lines of development, this is an area that will be greatly enhanced. Equipment can be procured on ‘mobile phone’ type contracts, i.e., pay-as-you-go, free technical upgrades, etc. Some pieces of equipment can be used for civil and military tasks. With a wide network of suppliers competing for business, a commercial provider is likely to get a better, quicker and cheaper service than its less agile, state-run equivalent. Personnel – Most of the personnel
initially are going to be ex-military and emergency services, but this will also afford the opportunity, especially for scientists who would not suit military or emergency service employment, to become involved, and hence raise the level of scientific expertise within the deployed teams. People will be key to the successful delivery of a commercial solution, but they will be much cheaper to employ than their state compatriots, so while they might have a better base salary they don’t have the housing and state pension costs. . Ancillary benefits such as these make state-run functions so expensive to the tax payer, and untenable in the modern era.
Integration – This area will trouble commercial operators, who will require a deep understand of military and emergency service procedures, in order that they can seamlessly plug in. But the cross-over between civil and military will be much improved if one operator does both, and will rely on recruiting the best military and emergency service staff to man the capability.
Doctrine – It is likely that state, UK/US and international organisations such as Nato or ABCA, will want to retain their own doctrine, but this will be heavily influenced and developed by the commercial provider, who will be at the coalface day on day and much more frequently than the state provider. They will also be unburdened with the additional paraphernalia of military service.
Organisation – The commercial capability can afford to have a flatter and leaner organisation than its forebears, but it must have the resilience to plug into national civil and military organisations.
Interoperability – This is an area which should be greatly improved under commercial direction and a single capability covering all national requirements. It will, however, be important that personnel in the commercial organisation have the right
level of security clearance to be able to plug into national organisations.
Logistics – Commercial organisations will use the most efficient and cheapest logistic support solutions, which for a number of reasons will not be available to state-run organisations. Modern, commercial, logistic networks can pretty much get anything anywhere, very quickly, and not burdened by national carriers who have to be used in order to justify their existence.
Leadership – The commercial capability must provide the same level of leadership as enjoyed hitherto, but should be able to attract the best personnel from the diminishing military capabilities of most states. Leadership is key to the resilience of the commercial capability, and those running commercial ventures must have the absolute trust and respect of their political masters.
Summary
The need for a commercial solution for state-run CBRN defence capability is long overdue. It has never been economical to keep high-tech, expensive standing capabilities for very low demand situations, but the awfulness of CBRN weapons requires states to protect against them. Hence, commercial solutions that can mitigate this risk at a fraction of the cost of state-run capabilities must be the only answer on the proviso they are up to the task. Very few commercial enterprises will be able to match this challenge. It is this proviso which has hitherto made commercial ventures unworkable, because the manpower at the relevant quality and experience has not been available.
SecureBio is working with the Kurdistan Regional Government on a project to identify the missing persons in the contaminated mass graves in Halabja. They are delivering in-the- field Chemical Biological and Radiological (CBR) solutions at the point of need. Mobile Deployable Teams can cover the complete range of CBR requirements across Detection, Identification, Monitoring and Analysis (DIMA). SecureBio also fields a mobile DNA lab, capable of reference and Trace DNA profile production at the point of need.
www.cbrneworld.com CBRNe South America 2012, 13-14 March, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. More information on
www.icbrnevents.com
February 2012 CBRNe WORLD
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