A new military organization is being stood up to respond to chemical, biological or nuclear attacks on the United States.
The unit is expected to assist civil authorities in responding to a weapon of mass destruction attack U.S. soil. The organization is known as CCMRF, which is an acronym for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive consequence management response force.
The first of three planned units will include between 4,000 and 6,000 personnel. It will fall under the Joint Force Land Component Command, U.S. Army North, which is based in San Antonio, Texas. Members will include soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
Specialty groups within CCMRF can detect and measure the strength and pervasiveness of hazardous emissions, said Lt. Col. Almarah Belk, a Defense Department spokesperson. That information can be used to assess whether or not it is safe for people to enter certain areas in the aftermath of an attack.
Other members of CCMRF will be responsible for defusing bombs with “Andros” robots, which have been used in Iraq to disarm explosive devices, Belk said.
CCMRF would in an emergency undertake search-and-rescue missions, extract casualties or decontaminate people after a nuclear, chemical or biological attack. It would prioritize the treatment of seriously injured patients from those with minor injuries, provide transportation and logistical support.
The Marine Corps boasts a similar unit — the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, or CBIRF. But CCMRF is nearly 40 times larger than the CBIRF, Belk said.
“The CCMRF provides significantly more capacity,” she said. “The CBIRF alone would be exhausted in relatively short order … The CCMRF also has significant logistics capabilities that CBIRF simply does not possess.”
Military personnel in this unit would operate under the authority of civilian organizations. That is a shift in thinking for the military, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told reporters while visiting one of the force’s training sessions.
CCMRF has been criticized for allegedly training soldiers to use crowd-control weapons such as tasers. Belk denied the occurrence of such training.