Background

	Started in Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 after then-Defense Secretary William Cohen was apprised by first-response organizations that they lacked the technical expertise to identify and assess the particular chemical and biological agents that might be the instrument of a terrorist attack.
	Precursors to RAID were the Military Support to Civil Authorities (MSCA) teams, located with each state's National Guard.
	Not connected with counter-terrorism activities; involved exclusively in consequence management.

 
Mission

	Deploy to provide early assessment and initial detection of WMD; provide technical advice to the Incident Commander.
	Advise local and state response elements.
	Define situational requirements; facilitate identification of DoD asset requirements.
	Expedite employment of state and federal military support; liaise among all elements.

 
Numbers

	Thirty-two teams have thus far been authorized by Congress, including 17 teams added in FY 2000, and five added in FY 2001.
	The first 10 teams were funded as part of the National Defense Appropriations Act for FY 1999. As of September 2001, nine of these have been certified as by the secretary of defense as deployable.
	Under current plans, teams will be located in 26 states.

 
Location and Selection

	Location selection is based on access to the greatest number of people in order to minimize response time within a given geographical area. Also critical is reducing overlap with other teams' areas of responsibility. The resulting distribution is intended to provide optimum response coverage for entire U.S. populace.
	Population was the determining factor in stationing plan, not state jurisdictional boundaries. State boundaries are only relevant with respect to administration and chain of command.
	Initially, one detachment was planned per Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region.
	Each unit is co-located with Air National Guard aviation units to facilitate coordination of troop and equipment airlifts.
	Certified teams are those in: Natick, Mass. Scotia, N.Y. Fort Indiantown Gap, Penn. Marietta, Ga. Peoria, Ill. Austin, Texas Aurora, Colo. Los Alamitos, Calif. Tacoma, Wash.

Jurisdiction

	Teams will always work in support of civilian agencies under the jurisdiction of the governor. Unless federalized, WMD-CST teams will remain under the control of the governor of the host state.
	WMD-CST teams will work across state lines. For example, a team in New York could respond to an emergency in Connecticut.
	If the situation evolves into an event that overwhelms local and state officials, federal agencies and military personnel may enter the scene after a declaration of disaster or emergency. At this point, the team will be subject to the direction of the federal authorities. The team would continue to support local officials but would also assist in channeling additional military and other federal assets in support of the local commander.
	WMD-CST teams are unique because of their federal-state relationship: — Federally resourced, trained, and evaluated   — Operate under federal doctrine   — Mission performed primarily under command and control of state governors, i.e. first and foremost, teams are state assets that fall under the command and control of the adjutants general of each state.

 
Training

Team members spend 800-1,200 hours learning the standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA), the National Fire Academy, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); they also train extensively with civilian subject-matter experts. A high level of proficiency in each individual's military specialty must be maintained. In addition to individual training requirements, the collective training requirement is of utmost importance. Fifteen months of rigorous initial unit training is required before operational certification.

Because training with a WMD-CST unit is extensive, specialized, and proceeds with intensity on a daily basis, a three-year commitment is required. Soldiers train year-round, in all weather conditions and possible environments (contaminated zones, crash sites, etc.) with emphasis in the following areas:

	Nuclear, biological, chemical, radiological sampling, detection, and decontamination.
	Functions of air re-breathers and other protective wear.
	Emergency communications.
	Coordination of civil-military operations.

Training and coursework are also provided by the Army Chemical School, the Defense Nuclear Weapons School, the Army Medical Department, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, and the Department of Justice's Center for Domestic Preparedness.

 
Deployment

	Equipment: Mobile analytical laboratory for field analysis of chemical/biological agents and a unified command suite that has the ability to provide communications interoperability among various responders. Advanced communications and automation equipment to assist and augment first response authorities. Photoinonization detectors for identification of explosive and volatile substances.
	Self-containment: Each WMD-CST carries enough food and water to last 48 to 72 hours. Each team moves out with its own detection and decontamination equipment, medical supplies, and protective gear.
	Interoperability: WMD-CST teams use commercial vehicles and predominantly civilian equipment for easy integration with civilian emergency management personnel.
	Chain of Command: Deployed teams automatically come under the authority of the Incident Command System, which was developed by first responders to minimize confusion at an incident site.
	Response: Established to deploy rapidly to assist a local incident commander in determining the nature and extent of an attack or incident, provide technical advice on WMD response operations, and help identify the need for and support the arrival of follow-on state and federal military response assets. Ready to deploy within four hours to anywhere within area of responsibility.

 
Personnel

	Organization: Each team, comprised of 22 full-time service members, is divided into these six cells and headed by a Command and Control (C2) section: Reconnaissance Medical Support Logistics and Administration Communications Air Liaison Security
	Composition: Chemical, biological, nuclear weapons specialists Medical staff Physicians' assistants Persons trained in explosive or ordnance disposal Firefighters and EMT professionals Chemists Physicists Nuclear technicians

Outreach

	Information-sharing: Medical specialists are available to lecture hospitals on treating victims.
	Training: Help train law enforcement officers, HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials) teams, and other first-responders by providing materials and equipment, demonstrating its use, and helping emergency response personnel select the appropriate equipment for their own use.

 
Funding

In FY 1999, the federal government provided more than $60 million to train, employ, and equip these teams. In 2000, $75 million was appropriated for the program, with $58 million earmarked for the 17 new teams.

 
Important Issues

Posse Comitatus Act: The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits military personnel from being used for law enforcement within the United States. As a result, there have been objections to using the National Guard to support civil authorities in this manner. However, WMD-CST troops are at all times under the jurisdiction of the state governor, a civilian, and serve to assess and evaluate situations in support of civilian authorities.

Duplication? Existing within the armed forces are several elite units trained in WMD incidents. Most notably are the Army's Technical Escort Units and the Marine Corps Chemical and Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), who possess the specialized skills to respond to a WMD incident and are part of the permanent standing military. However, use of these units for responding to domestic crises must be carefully examined both in light of the Posse Comitatus Act, above, and the necessity of force protection.

WMD-CST TEAMS:

PART OF A LARGER EFFORT
FOR EFFECTIVE INTEGRATED REPONSE

The government's overall goal is to provide first responders with as much capability as possible during the first critical minutes, hours, and days after an attack. WMD-CST teams are part of this initial response, but other assets exist to provide effective coordination and integrated response.

 
Joint Task Force - Civil Support (JTF-CS)

Created as DoD's command and control center for military support to civilian authorities. JTF-CS will respond to requests for assistance from FEMA for the purposes of domestic WMD consequence management support.

While tasked with support for the Department of Defense and production of contingency plans for various WMD scenarios, the Joint Task Force for Civil Support (JTF-CS) has no standing military personnel. To fulfill the goal of providing military support to civilian authorities within the United States, its possessions, and its territories, the JTF-CS is commanded by a flag officer and supported by full-time civilian personnel trained to organize and integrate first responders, federal law-enforcement authorities, and emergency management personnel. The JTF-CS plans and integrates the Department of Defense's support to FEMA for WMD events in the United States, drawing on the DoD's logistical and medical assets and capabilities in detection and decontamination of toxic agents. JTF-CS personnel are trained to detect chemical, biological, and nuclear hazards, can operate in hazardous environments, and, most importantly, can anticipate problems, know where the necessary assets are, and quickly move the assets to a critical area. After the secretary of defense issues an order for military forces to provide assistance to civil authorities during a state of emergency or disaster, JTF-CS personnel deploy to an incident site to serve as the command and control headquarters for responding DoD units, work to save lives and prevent injury, and provide temporary critical life support. To this end they will utilize their rapid access to military forces and quick reach-back capabilities to contact subject matter experts, and medical support.

 
Domestic Preparedness Program: Training CIVILIAN responders.

The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 1997 contains an amendment allowing for what is now referred to as the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program. This amendment provided the legislative basis and financial support for first-responder training in a WMD emergency. Training first-responders began in FY 1997, and has been successful in training firefighters, police, and EMTs in 120 of the largest cities in the country. It has now expanded to include a mixture of 157 cities and counties. More than 20,000 first responders have been trained and over 75 cities have completed these Army-run training programs. Since the Department of Justice (DoJ) is responsible for domestic law enforcement and some aspects of emergency management, the Domestic Preparedness Program will eventually fall under the auspices of the DoJ.

As part of this program, the Public Health Service has also created Metropolitan Medical Strike Teams, or MMST, in each of the cities designated in the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Amendment. At least 47 cities have MMST in place that will respond at the request of local authorities. The focus of the MMST is mass medical care and mass decontamination measures. These 129-person teams facilitate coordination among area medical facilities and help ensure maximum utility from medical supplies and stockpiles. Each team is divided into three groups which consist of physicians, nurses, paramedics, EMTs, HAZMAT technicians, and law enforcement officers.

Sources: Department of Defense, Army National Guard.

By Emily Clark

 
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