INSIGHTS and
ISSN: 2154-4476
Published by Tactical Defense Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly forbidden. ©2020
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As Summer gives way to Autumn, threats to national security seem greater at home than in recent memory. National, state, and local response to an ongoing pandemic continues to play out while those who defend the nation from everyday threats, such as potential biological or chemical attack, and real-world illicit activities to and from our borders, continue keeping the country safe. The Fall 2020 issue of Security & Border and CST/CBRNE examines myriad ways DoD continues to respond to challenges related to COVID-19 and its effect on American defense and security missions at home and internationally. Setting an example for the nation’s pandemic defense response at the state level, units of the Georgia National Guard are deploying Infection Control Teams (ICTs) in coordination with neighboring state agencies to help mitigate the spread. From Georgia to the border, Gaetano Cordone, Deputy Executive Director, Sea, Mobility, and Biometrics, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), spoke with Security & Border on advances CBP has made in maintaining precise identification control over travelers entering and leaving American soil. Mr. Cordone makes note of the added measures the agency has taken to keep personnel and those they come into contact with safe during the recent months since the pandemic began. From the border to efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to adopt early, enhanced biological threat recognition, we hear from Dr. Lloyd Hough, Tech Lead, Bio Threat Characterization, Hazard Awareness & Characterization Technology Center (HAC-TC), DHS, who speaks to efforts by the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) to provide the U.S. with better forensic investigatory and defensive research capabilities to help thwart potential mass biological attacks. The rapid evolution of chemical-based threats to national security have led the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop methodology for Detecting Indicators of Chemical Exposure (DICE) as a way of minimizing impact to those may have come in contact with potentially-toxic chemical agents. The reduction and eventual elimination of much of what to this day remains present in America’s stockpile of decommissioned chemical weapons is the mission of the Chemical Materials Activity (CMA) Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate (RCMD). RCMD Director Donald Benton spoke with CST/CBRNE about his organization’s efforts to not only assess and neutralize recovered weapons, but to do so in an environmentally-responsible manner. Back in the COVID fight, the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, is leading Army efforts to bring the latest in mobile viral testing labs, field decontamination, and canine-based detection to Soldiers and support personnel on the front lines. Rounding off the issue, two perspectives from industry offer insight into the latest in skin and wearable viral protection so that those who protect us are themselves protected. As always, your comments are welcome. Thanks for the readership and stay safe!
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