Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/759309
43 By Captain Derek Taylor E ach July, the Canadian Defense Research and De- velopment Center (DRDC) hosts a large-scale, live- agent training exercise at the Counter Terrorism and Technology Center (CTTC), Suffield Base, Alberta, Canada. The 11th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) Company (Technical Escort) provided two chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives response teams (CRTs) and a small company headquarters element to represent U.S. CBRNE capabilities. Roughly 350 personnel from 10 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations worked together to share capabilities; test the interoperability of NATO chemical, biological, radiologi- cal, and nuclear (CBRN) forces; and validate assigned equip- ment and established procedures. CTTC Facility The facility at Suffield Base is one of the few in the world capable of providing such robust, outdoor, live-agent train- ing scenarios. The 11th CBRNE Company Soldiers learned about the training opportunities available at the CTTC, at- tended capabilities briefings from each participating nation, and participated in basic facility-specific safety training dur- ing the 3-week exercise. The CTTC is capable of providing units with live chemi- cal agent and radiological training, very realistic biological- agent training, and robust explosives training. The several- acre training site contains dozens of replicated scenarios to simulate small, third-world villages; clandestine laborato- ries; research laboratories; automobile accidents; airplane and bus terminals; and various post-blast incidents. The fa- cility staff can customize the scenarios to meet the training objectives of the participating units. Exercise Precise Response provided a state-of-the-art venue for nations to learn of each other's capabilities and limitations. Each participating nation provided short brief- ings, and Soldiers were allowed an entire afternoon to visit equipment displays. These displays enabled Soldiers to in- teract with their counterparts at the subteam level to dis- cuss differences in capabilities and techniques. The week concluded with each participant conduct- ing live-agent safety training. The training took place in a laboratory setting with live agent under a fume hood. Participants wore minimal personal protective equipment (laboratory coat, goggles, gloves, but no mask) during the demonstration. This also served as a validation that the unit organic equipment did indeed detect and identify live chemi- cal agents. For the last 2 weeks of training, participating nations split into three NATO CBRN task forces. The Netherlands, France, and Germany each led a task force, with the 11th CBRNE Company CRTs in support of the German task force. The CRTs are unique compared to other NATO CBRN forces in that they have explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), decontamination, reconnaissance, and sampling expertise organic to their elements. Most other nations have platoons Canadian SIBCRA team members discuss the equipment. Winter 2016