Center for Combating WMD

USSTRATCOM has established a Center for Combating WMD as one of the command's functional components, and General Cartwright is suggesting that the Director of DTRA be the head of the new center. Inside The Pentagon (subscription required) has the details:

The center, as described in the memo, will plan, integrate and synchronize Defense Department efforts “with other agencies as appropriate and as directed, maintaining global WMD situational awareness and supporting STRATCOM” in combating nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons threats, the memo reads.

The memo identifies three “pillars” of the fight: nonproliferation, counterproliferation and consequence management, which are “further subdivided into eight mission areas.” But the document does not detail what those are.

The center will work in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, combatant commands, the services, federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations and allied nations “as appropriate,” the documents reads.

Cartwright envisions stationing a small group of officers down at Fort Belvior to leverage DTRA's existing personnel and resources to execute the function, while STRATCOM HQ disseminates guidance and policy for combating WMD, synchronizes its activities with the intel community, advocates desired capabilities for combating WMD, and exercises command and control of selected WMD-related operations. He's been eyeing DTRA to do this since at least March.

I don't know if this center will be a good thing or not. This concept follows the president's national strategy for combating WMD right down the line, and I'm not terribly fond of that strategy (for absolutely non-partisan reasons). I don't believe an organization should mix solutions to combat the use of NBC weapons on the battlefield with responding to terrorist CBRN incidents within the United States, and that's what the president's strategy does. DTRA only does the military battlefield part, and they're serious about counterproliferation - that's a good thing. I'm not so certain that they won't just focus on nuclear weapons - the only real WMD - and not address CB weapons (more particularly, passive defense response to CB weapons).

We do desperately need an advocate for CBRN defense - the Army Chemical Corps went from 4 general officers to one, OSD's leadership in this area has been mediocre - I'm just not sure this is it. If STRATCOM steps up and takes this position seriously, it could be a good thing.