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/141522
By Colonel Clark H. Summers A ccording to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) strategic review for 2012,1 threats to U.S. strategic interests are expected to increase throughout the world; at the same time, military readiness resources are expected to be reduced. The primary missions of the U.S. Army, as designated by the Secretary of Defense, include countering weapons of mass destruction and providing defense support of civil authorities. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) units provide the critical CBRN capabilities necessary to meet the demands of these missions. Therefore, CBRN units must be operationally effective. Operational and strategic CBRN capabilities are the most Reserve Component (RC)-based elements of the mobilitycountermobility-survivability force structure. Two of the three U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) CBRN brigades belong to the RC—one to the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) and one to the Army National Guard (ARNG). Of 15 available CBRN battalions, only fve belong to the Regular Army, while eight belong to the USAR and two belong to the ARNG. And 58 of the 78 Army CBRN companies (or 74 percent) belong to the RC.2 The U.S. Army fundamentally relies on the RC—especially the USAR—to accomplish its countering weapons of mass destruction and defense support of civil authorities missions. Therefore, it is essential that USAR CBRN forces be constituted, organized, and led to achieve the maximum "bang for the buck." The alignment of these forces is currently inconsistent with the force structure described in USAR Command operational and functional command doctrine. Thus, the forces are not well prepared to meet CBRN operational demands. The establishment of a general offcer level command and the realignment of existing USAR CBRN forces within this new organization would better meet functional and operational requirements. 40 Problem Under the current USAR force structure, there is no doctrinally coherent operational and functional command tasked with performing training readiness oversight of CBRN units or with ensuring the effective integration of the units (as operational reserve) with Regular Army CBRN assets. Within the USAR Command major subordinate command structure, the 335th Signal Command (Theater) has been assigned mission command responsibility for the 415th Chemical Brigade (including four CBRN battalions) and four other CBRN battalions aligned under two other separate U.S. Army Signal Corps units. Undoubtedly committed to providing the best leadership and support possible, the 335th Signal Command is not organized or resourced to provide the effective mission command of CBRN forces. Its current mission command structure is fully engaged in meeting critical operational- and strategic-level signal operations. It is unreasonable to expect the 335th to simultaneously provide effective mission command to a completely separate, technically demanding functional area. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of a cohesive operational control strategy to integrate USAR CBRN assets under the 20th Support Command (SUPCOM)—the principal Regular Army CBRN force provider and operational headquarters.3 Although USAR CBRN assets conceptually fall under the 20th (as necessary to execute global CBRN and countering weapons of mass destruction missions), there is no formal coordination between the various headquarters to plan, program, or train together. Furthermore, the 20th SUPCOM is the only CBRN headquarters within any of the Army components that can serve as a joint task force headquarters for CBRN operations. Once deployed, there is no other standing mission command element available to serve as an operational reserve. Neither the 335th Signal Command nor the 20th SUPCOM is staffed or resourced to provide the supervision and mentoring Army Chemical Review