Military Review English Edition July-August 2016

CBRNE Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington I CORPS Pacific Command 3 110 Yakima Training Center, Washington 9 TE 11 TE 707 45 787 Task Force 52 (CBRNE) Task Force 71 53 Fort Carson, Colorado Task Force 48 749 Fort Riley, Kansas 62 764 630 10 759 774 CCE 21 46 TE 741 79 68 704 TE 752 181 CBRNE 71st OD (EOD) Group 52nd OD (EOD) Group 48th Chemical Brigade CARA KEYS EOD—Explosive Ordnance Disposal Chemical Corps CCE—CBRNE Coordination Element Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland Fort Belvoir, Virginia CCE CMU U.S. ARMY 1 AML 55 Fort Bragg, North Carolina CARA (West) X 48 192 XVIII CORPS Global Response Force Fort Benning, Georgia 789 705 Fort Polk, Louisiana III CORPS 20th CBRNE CBRNE 52 CCE 797 ++ 20 Redstone Arsenal, Alabama Fort Bliss, Texas Fort Hood, Texas 2 723 CONTINENTAL U.S. SUPPORT 22 734 49 59 754 Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri 761 44 744 CARA Fort Sill, 763 Oklahoma 71 717 63 172 Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico 760 184 (CBRNE) 242 Fort Irwin, California Fort Drum, New York Fort Campbell, Kentucky (CBRNE) Central Command, Africa Command, & European Command 722 18 767 28 AIRBORNE 21 Fort Stewart, Georgia 83 25 51 TE 38 756 92 AML—Area Medical Lab CARA—CBRNE Analytical & Remediation Activity CBRNE—Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives CCE—CBRNE Coordination Element CMU—Consequence Management Unit TE—Technical Escort OD—Ordnance Disposal (Graphic by Col. F. John Burpo, U.S. Army) Figure 2. CBRNE Brigade Task Force Regional Alignment: Unity of Command and Unity of Effort Reorganizing CBRNE Task Forces for Improved Efficiency We offer that to operate effectively across the CBRNE spectrum, the Army must broaden the historically limiting view of the 20th CBRNE Command as focused only on CWMD and counter-IED operations. It must be available for employment across the full range of CBRNE threats and hazards and across the full range of military operations. Rather than viewing the operational environment through a narrow CWMD lens, analyzing problems through a wider CBRNE perspective better illuminates challenges and opportunities, and it leverages the full capa bility of the command. For example, recent deployment of the 20th CBRNE Command’s area medical lab in support of Operation United Assistance, the response to the Ebola MILITARY REVIEW July-August 2016 crises in West Africa, illustrates an example of CBRNE force employment that would have been precluded based on a strictly WMD employment mindset. We propose that to meet similar future challenges emerging from the rapidly changing strategic environment, as well as the intent of the Quadrennial Defense Review and the directives of the Army Strategic Planning Guidance, by task-organizing the functionally organized command into three multifunctional CBRNE brigade TFs.12 Each TF would be enabled with robust CBRNE planning and coordinating expertise and technical reach-back capabilities provided by an aligned CBRNE coordination element (see figure 1). Establishing unity of command, defining clear objectives, and employing maneuver to capitalize on the flexible application of power are battle proven remedies 67

Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 69