Chem-bio defense policies revisited Post-Iraq.

The industrial base responded remarkably well to the surge in demand for chemical and biological defense equipment in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

But troops in the theater encountered problems operating equipment that had not been properly tested, said Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Reeves, the joint program executive officer for chemical and biological defense.

Reeves oversees the development, testing and acquisition of chemical and biological detection systems, medical diagnostics and countermeasures.

Detector devices and other chem-bio gear shipped to OIF had been tested by contractors, but had not yet been approved by the government for use in combat, he said. "None of it had independent government evaluations by independent Department of Defense test agencies certifying its safety or effectiveness."

Reeves and other senior officials addressed the 20th World Wide Chemical Conference at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Dale Klein, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical defense programs, issued a memo to the service secretaries, in February 2003, directing that no equipment be purchased by the services without independent government testing, Reeves said.

"Suffice it to say, industry has the message that NBC [nuclear, biological and chemical] equipment purchased and fielded to deployed forces requires independent government test and evaluation before procurement," said Reeves.

Reeves acknowledged that, while contractor logistical support was adequate, the service doctrine requires adjustments.

"We've been struggling with this for the last decade," said Reeves.

The doctrine states that contractors normally are not permitted to operate on the front lines. Although contracts contain "war clauses" outlining the risks to contractors in accepting and performing functions in these situations, there is an understandable concern fnr their safety, said Reeves.

In a separate discussion, Reeves outlined 11 new capabilities fielded to the services in OIE Some, such as the Joint Service Light-weight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST), were pegged as successes. Others, like the M40 mask-carrying case, were deemed misses. For example, some soldiers wanted a larger carrying case for the mask, he added.

"We, in fact, are planning on smaller cases, but rccognize the need to carry additional protective mask filtcrs as well as individual NBC protective items," said Reeves.

"We are working with Program Manager Soldier on the best means to carry, and if necessary will develop better methods for carrying individual protective items."

Although the JSLIST protective suit was a big hit, stone units also required wearing flame-retardant unifurms. The combination of a flame-retardant overgarment and a JSLIST suit is cumbersome, he said.

"We are looking for new technologies and material combinatinns that allow us to combine chem/bio protection with flame retardancy without losing the ntost desirable characteristics of the JSLIST, such as rapid heat dissipation," said Reeves.

Among the needed items are battlefield detectors for toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), to be used at the tactical level, said Reeves.

"TICs may be present in very small quantities that may not be harmful. TICs also present not only a difficult detection challenge, but a complex challenge in understanding the 'threat' presented by TICs at the tactical level," he said. "For example, a TIC detector might detect chlorine from an open bottle of Clorox bleach. While not an immediate threat, breathing Clorox fumes over a long period of time is clearly not desirable."

Conversely, there is no need to evacuate the area everytime someone opens a bottle of bleach, said Reeves.

"Our challenge is to develop TIC detectors with smart algorithms that not only identify the threat, but tell the operator the level of the threat and actions required," Reeves said.

The Automatic Chemical Agent Detection Alarm (ACADA) worked extremely well, he said. But users expressed a desire for more vehicle mounts and rechargeable batteries.

"Both of these areas are being addressed," said Reeves.

Chemical units in OIF saw shortages in decontamination equipment, said Army Col. Henry Franke, chemical officer, 18th Airborne Corps. In particular, the units did not have enough of the MI7 Light Decon Systems, the Army workhorse for unit-level decontamination of personnel and equipment.

"Without specialized equipment, chemical soldiers are riflemen," he said.

"The Army has been addressing these shortfalls before OIF started and continues to work to correct them," he said.

Another source of concern for the Chemical Corps units in OIF, Franke said, was that they were often tasked with non-traditional missions, such as traffic control and foot patrols.

Some of the evolving operational needs include defining the role of the chemical units, which is still unclear, Franke said.

The Army sees a growth in demand for skills such as hazardous materials response, Chemical Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) installation force protection, CBRN consequence management, technical escort, sensitive site exploitation and mass casualty decontamination, he said.

Lt. Col. Steve Lake, who had just returned from Iraq, said communication systems, especially at the brigade level, need to be improved.

"We don't have the ability to talk [to brigades] when we go out on missions," he said.

Lt. Col. Rick Simmons, division chemical officer for the 1st Cavalry Division, III Corps, will oversee the 1st Cavalry Hazardous Response Team when it deploys to Iraq next year.

He said Chemical Corps soldiers in Iraq are suffering the effects of having to identify unknown materials.

"Some have become ill," said Simmons. While the response team will deal with hazardous waste operations and emergency response, Simmons hopes to train Iraqis for the work.

"The idea is to get the Iraqi government to handle environmental [concerns]," he said. "We will use our teams as a last resort."

Simmons told the conference that the Iraq Survey Group, in charge of finding weapons of mass destruction, has discovered laboratory parts, including an unused, complete lab buried in the desert. The ISG also found a munitions facility that Simmons said was capable of being turned into a lab. They also found chemicals that could be used as precursors for chemical weapons, he added. The items, however, were not found in the same location, but scattered across the desert, said Simmons.

Industrial Base

The U.S. industry's response to the war, meanwhile, proved that "the industrial base was fully prepared for the chem-bio threat the warfighter faced," said Rick Thomas, co-chairman of the chemical-biological defense Acquisition Initiative Forum.

While some suppliers stocked equipment to keep up the pace with the chemical corps' demands, other manufacturers modified systems to provide the service with a more useful product, said Joseph Zarzycki, technical director at Edgewood Chemical-Biological Center.

For example, the Army requested Smiths Detection to redesign the packaging of reagents (a substance used to detect another substance) used in the BioDetector, an automated biological detection and identification system.

The unit is part of the Army's Biological Integrated Detection System (BIDS). The reagents require refrigeration to extend the shelf life. By reducing the packaging, it allowed more material to be stored, in refrigeration, in less space, Thomas said.

Contractors also ordered additional materials to assure a steady supply was available to soldiers, he said.

Suppliers also ramped-up the production schedule for the M22 ACADA, to make sure the detector was available for troops in OIF. More than 6,000 systems were deployed, Thomas said.

In addition, the contractors set up repair and maintenance plans, he added.

Another contractor was required to redesign the C2A1 canister (for use with FRM40 respirator). Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the company was manufacturing approximately 24,000 units per month. When OIF began, the company increased its production to 35,000, said Merlin Erickson, director, engineering, Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM).

After a major surge in demand, the company was able to boost production up to 200,000 units just by redesigning the canister, said Erickson.

But even with a ten-fold increase in production, the company is still facing a backorder of 1 million systems, he added.

"The critical requirements of [Operation Iraqi Freedom] were met," said Erickson. "But [we would have been] in deep trouble if we received another deployment order."

The military also should increase shelf life testing of many products, especially for chem-bio defense, he said.

"We don't want large quantities of stock expiring at the same time," said Erickson.

JSLIST Stocks

There were also challenges in meeting the troops' need for the Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology, the only chem-bio protection suit in production, said William Cawood, assistant director, defense capabilities and management, with the General Accounting Office.

The JSLIST is an improvement over the Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) gear. It is lighter weight, can be washed without diminishing its protective attributes, can be worn for 45 days and allows for greater mobility.

Only one supplier--a Japanese firm--makes the carbon beads, a critical filtering component of the fabric. A German company manufactures the fabric, Cawood said.

Congress has mandated that the military seek alternative sources to buy the fabric for the JSLIST, but so far none has been found, he added.

Cawood said that its been an "exemplary performance by suppliers" to meet the demand.

Even so, it still takes the two companies months to receive the beads and fabric, said Cawood. "There are no stockpiles."

And it can take upwards of a year before an order is shipped, he added, making dependence on a sole-source a concern for the military.

That in turn could impact the number of suits the military has in stock, Cawood said.

"There is the potential time gap between [the time] suit inventory is exhausted and resupplied," he said.

The Department of Defense also needs to develop a wartime consumption rate for JSLIST. The current assumptions are outdated, Cawood added.

The lack of a Pentagon-wide inventory management system, also makes it difficult to determine whether the Defense Department has enough JSLIST suits onhand to meet a war-time requirement, he said.

MOPP gear is being phased out at a rate of 20 percent a year. By 2007, the suits will no longer be in service, said Cawood.

The GAO recommended that the Defense Department establish a stockpile of carbon beads and filter fabric, develop a war-time strategy for future suit acquisition and funding decisions, increase the consistency and predictability of funding, and obligate procurement funds over a three-year period, said Cawood.