ARTICLE

June 2003

Security Beat

by NDIA Staff

Which Security Missions Are Military, Civilian?
An “overarching issue” in homeland security is which missions should be assigned to military reservists and which should be handled by civilian first responders, said Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs.

Such missions as defense of U.S. air space, for example, “is a national requirement,” Hall told a breakfast gathering of defense writers. Approximately 80 percent of the air defense flights are conducted by Air National Guard and reserve pilots, he said.

“Most of them are pilots for the airlines,” Hall said. With the economically troubled airlines offering fewer flights these days, the pilots have plenty of time to fly for the Guard and reserves. “That will be a continuing requirement,” he said.

To provide security at important sites around the country “we ought to develop more... first responders... rather than have the armed forces do it,” Hall said.

One of the proposals under consideration, Hall said, is the expanded use of volunteer organizations, such as the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Civil Air Patrol. “How about retirees? We have a huge pool of retirees. I am one of them ... We can still serve.”

The Defense Department wants to focus the use of the Guard and reserves on solely military missions, Hall said. Currently, 223,622 members of the Guard and reserves—more than one out of four—are on active duty, the largest mobilization of National Guard forces since World War II. In the past 13 years, he said, “we have had eight mobilizations.”

Transferring Army Technology to States Not Easy
The U.S. Army has invested billions of dollars in training systems that would have a variety of applications in homeland security. But transferring this technology from the military to National Guard and law-enforcement agencies is easier said than done.

A case in point is a marksmanship trainer—called Engagement Skills Trainer—which can create virtual scenarios for infantry combatants as well as for police forces and anti-terrorism squads.

The EST was developed by the Army’s program executive office for simulation, training and instrumentation. The Army directed PEO STRI officials to market the EST trainer to National Guard units and other homeland security organizations.

That has proven to be a tougher job than anyone had expected, said Lt. Col. Joseph A. Giunta Jr., product manager for ground combat tactical trainers at PEO STRI.

In the absence of a central procurement office for homeland security equipment, the Army has contacted individual states, trying to interest them in the EST trainer for their National Guard forces.

After discussing the matter with various Guard officials, Giunta realized, to his chagrin, that most states lack funds for new technology and that each state plays by different rules when it comes to the procurement of homeland security gear.

During a recent conference of the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, Giunta was asked what agency would be responsible to fund the procurement of trainers for homeland security. His response: “If you can find out, please call me.”

Complicating matters is that fact that each National Guard unit has different requirements for training. “It’s a challenge,” said Giunta. “Each National Guard team in each state trains differently. ... The capabilities are different.”

An executive from ECC Corp., the Orlando, Fla.-based manufacturer of the trainer, has been helping Giunta’s office pitch the EST to state governments. One frustrated executive told National Defense: “It’s tough to deal with individual states.”

National Guard Needs Cash for WMD Support Teams
The National Guard is making its case to Congress this month to receive sufficient funds to stand up Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams in all states, according to Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs.

“We have to figure out how we will fund that, how we will field those teams,” Hall told reporters at a breakfast meeting. “No money was put in the ‘04 bill, so we always have that challenge.”

He said that the National Guard has already committed to Congress that there will be 55 of those support teams. The Guard has recently fielded the 32nd group. Because of its size and population, California will have two teams, said Hall.

The concept for the WMD Civil Support Teams was developed back in 1998 during Bill Clinton’s administration. The teams are meant to deploy rapidly and assist a local incident commander in determining the nature and extent of a WMD attack. The teams also provide expert technical advice on response operations and help identify response assets. Each team consists of 22 members of the National Guard.

“They have great capability,” said Hall. “We have used five in the shuttle [Columbia] recovery. They have great...flexibility and mobility” to do things like that.”

However, Hall stressed that there was no money in this year’s budget either to allocate for the new teams. “The requirement was there with no money,” he said. But he stressed that Congress will have to find a way to add on the funds.

Coast Guard Goes to Dogs for Bomb, Drug Searches
As part of its role in homeland security, the U.S. Coast Guard is deploying dogs trained to detect explosives and narcotics.

The dogs will work with the Coast Guard’s quick-reaction forces—known as Maritime Safety and Security Teams and Tactical Law Enforcement Teams—to conduct shipboard searches and helicopter deployments. They will be based initially in Chesapeake, Va.; Seattle, Miami and the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The dogs have been undergoing a rigorous, eight-week training course, learning techniques for searching ships, vehicles and buildings, as well as deploying from boats and helicopters. The training is being conducted in Mobile, Ala., by personnel from Auburn University’s Canine Training Center, near Anniston, Ala.

Pentagon Official Challenges Information Industry
One of the biggest deficiencies in the intelligence community is “knowing what we do not know,” said Richard Haver, the special assistant to the secretary of defense for intelligence.

“Our community ... has lost sight of what we do not know. Our systems do not cue us to the unknown, they cue us to the known,” Haver said in a speech at the Technet 2003 conference organized by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

The industry’s task in building next-generation systems, he said, is thinking about how to incorporate the unknown factors.

Haver challenged the notion of “information superiority” that has been circling in the intelligence and security community. Information, he said, is just a small part of a bigger picture. “I have a particular unhappiness with the term ‘information superiority,’” he said. “It bothers me, because I do not think information is the answer.”

That information needs to be converted into knowledge that has to be made readily available to decision-makers, he said. “I am not interested in information superiority alone, I am not interested in knowledge superiority alone. I am interested in decision superiority.”

The government has to work with industry to “significantly” change the way “we are dealing with these problems” in intelligence gathering and security, Haver said.

He equated the current situation with the security environment of the mid-1950s. Back then, he added, “in a period of about 10 years, we reinvented the way information was gathered. ... Industry built those satellites, industry built those computers. ... The government gave the focus and the program management, but the inventions were from the industry,” he said.

The United States is at a crossroads again, even though the government is dealing with a different enemy and different circumstances. “Fundamentally, we have to produce the same thing and we have to reinvent this community again,” he said.

Cold Plasma Could Destroy Bio-Hazards
The Defense Department is looking to develop technology based on cold plasma to decontaminate equipment exposed to chemical and biological hazards. Once developed, this technology will also prove useful for homeland security, according to industry experts.

Cold plasma supposedly destroys deadly microbes lodged on skin, weapons, medical instruments or clothing. Research shows that plasma can rapidly break down complex chemicals found in nerve gas and deadly biological agents, such as anthrax.

A Connecticut-based company, Markland Technologies, will take over management responsibilities for three ongoing military research and development contracts involving cold plasma. Markland spent $1 million on atmospheric pressure plasmas (cold plasma) developed by a company called ASI, according to a company release.

‘Sick’ Buildings Find Their Cure
Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory has licensed a system that can destroy airborne biological agents as they move through a building’s heating and air conditioning ducts.

The system sterilizes “sick,” buildings, airplanes and cruise ships by neutralizing and destroys pathogens as they pass through a building’s ventilation system.

The technology has passed proof-of-concept tests that involved retrofitting the system into existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The system works without any special filtering that might impede airflow, according to Johns Hopkins.

“We’re seeing that the technology can be easily scaled up to handle real-world environments,” said Richard Potember, the project manager at APL’s Research and Technology Development Center.

The Bio-Defense Research Group, Inc., in Upper Marlboro, Md. will build this technology
“The Bio-Defense Research Group will take the research from APL’s prototype stage and scale it up to a system that works as effectively in commercial-size buildings,” said Potember.

Prime candidates for such a system are hospitals, where it could knock out staph and other infections.

Air Force Gets Force Protection on the Half Shell
To protect Langley Air Force Base, a team of government agencies and private environmental groups has built a manmade oyster reef under the waters of the Back River. Langley, in Hampton Roads, Va., is home to the Air Force’s Air Combat Command.

The reef was built of natural oyster shells and recycled porcelain, and nearly 250,000 seed oysters—native to the nearby Chesapeake Bay—have been transplanted there. “That reef—with its oyster shells and other sharp objects—will certainly slow down any seaward attack on the base,” said Raymond S. DuBois, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and the environment.

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