The NDIA CBRN Conference and Exhibition, Baltimore Convention Center, June 24 – 26, 2024:
A Report on Proceedings
By Dr. Joshua Sinai
The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) hosted its annual Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Conference & Exhibition on June 24-26 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. This article presents my findings from the meeting as a “Press” attendee, and the exhibited products therein.
Overview of the CBRN Threat
The concern about CBRN attacks by terrorists and rogue states gained international prominence beginning in the late 1980s. These included the following incidents:
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Beginning on April 26, 1986, an accidental explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power reactor in Ukraine killed 28 persons by acute radiation sickness, caused cancer in hundreds of others, led to the evacuation of more than 500,000 people, and resulted in an estimated $68 billion in economic damages.
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On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi government, under Saddam Hussein, carried out a mustard gas chemical weapon attack against the Kurdish people, in Halabja, Iraq. More than 3,000 people were killed, with more than 7,000 additional injured.
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On March 20, 1995, the Japan-based Aum Shinrikyo terrorist group carried out a coordinated multiple-point, highly toxic Sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, with an additional 5,500 others injured.
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Although not a CBRN weapons attack, al Qaida’s “conventional” tactic of hijacking three aircraft – with two of them crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City as well as the Pentagon outside Washington, DC – became a weapon of mass destruction incident as more than 3,000 people were killed and an additional 6,000 were wounded.
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With the realization that a weapon of mass destruction was now an effective weapon of choice for terrorists, beginning on September 18, 2001, a series of anthrax-laden letters were allegedly sent over the next several weeks by Dr. Bruce Ivins, an 18-year Army biologist at the U.S. government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, MD. Dr. Ivins committed suicide upon realizing that the FBI was about to arrest him. The anthrax letter attacks caused the deaths of five persons, but infected 17 others, contaminated an estimated 17 U.S. Postal Service offices as well as several Congressional buildings and news media offices, and cost more than $1 billion in overall damages.
Since 2001, no significant human-caused CBRN incidents have occurred, but around the world there have been numerous plots to employ such devices and agents, as well as numerous hoaxes. The hoaxes included white powder disguised as anthrax-laden letters that have been sent to prominent government and private sector persons.
The catastrophic global impacts of the COVID-19 viral pandemic, which erupted in late 2019, with more than 5 million fatalities worldwide, have demonstrated that the spread of infectious biological agents presents an ongoing risk. Similarly, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to employ a nuclear weapon against Ukraine, as well as Russia’s forced control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in southeastern Ukraine, represent a perpetual threat of nuclear and radiological explosions against Ukraine and its neighboring countries.
The Conference’s Proceedings
To address these risks, the annual NDIA CBRN conferences and exhibitions are important venues to examine all the aspects of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear means, especially protective measures by governments, militaries and health departments to anticipate, prepare to defend against, respond to, and recover from such incidents.
At the June 2024 conference, 12 panels addressed the CBRN-related topics of preparedness, detection, response, and recovery.
These included panels on governmental and military capabilities in managing CBRN-related risks in terms of:
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Detection and decision-making
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Medical countermeasures
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Protection and hazard mitigation
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Demonstrations, experiments, and accelerating acquisition of new technologies
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The state of the CBRN industrial base
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Government working with industry to harness opportunities and address risks in emerging biotechnologies
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Implementing the national biodefense strategy
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Countering the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat in the U.S. Homeland and across the world
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CBRN defensive readiness and modernization
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Research innovation
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Private sector industry perspective on resilience.
The meeting began with welcome remarks by Brigadier-General (U.S. Army, Ret.) and NDIA CBRN Division Chair, William King. To accompany the conference, his article about the state of the field was published in the June 2024 issue of NDIA’s National Defense magazine (pages 36-37). In his talk, Brigadier-General (Ret.) King highlighted that governments are currently at an inflection point in preparing to effectively respond to the CBRN threat, with appropriate counter-action programs and measures deferred for too long – especially as the lengthy COVID-19 pandemic taught us about the need to be better preemptively prepared. He also explained that no single nation or government agency possesses the full capability to execute these protective missions on their own, as an integrated "teams-of-teams" effort is required, in which national strategies are implemented at all levels.
In terms of CBRN threat trends, especially with the rapid maturity of threat technologies exceeding the capability of catching up with them, as well as the need for faster response to preempt future infectious outbreaks, Brigadier-General (Ret.) King highlighted the fact that new advances in technological detection, such as the utilization of sophisticated artificial intelligence/machine learning-based algorithms, are making it possible to identify and apply quicker solutions.
To understand how the military organizes to operate in the CBRN defense/offense environment, Brigadier-General (Ret.) King explained that military commands submit prioritized lists of CBRN-related requirements for the annual Department of Defense’s (DoD) Programming, Planning, Budget, and Executive process (known as the POM cycle). These prioritized lists are incorporated into the DoD’s annual Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. The national strategy’s 2023 edition discusses the security environment, strategic priorities, the role of countering WMD in integrated deterrence, and applying the strategy in terms of investing in advanced research as well as development and streamlining the acquisition system.
At the exhibits, I learned about new trends in the field and information such that the CBRN threat has evolved since the 1980s. As one exhibitor explained, in the late 1980s especially, there was great concern over CBRN-type attacks (see earlier chronology of incidents), with well-attended conferences and exhibitions on this risk. However, today there appears to be less concern about attacks by malicious actors, but that concern will escalate if a major CBRN attack occurs again.
Another insight is the transformation of the CBRN threat to include not only adversarial state actors (i.e., Iran), but also sub-state groups and individuals. For example, those who can deploy advanced uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) along great distance to their targets to inflict catastrophic damage. Our militaries, at the same time, can also deploy such advanced UAVs not only to attack our adversaries, but to collect CB agents from a battlefield and transmit information in real time, which reduces the need for soldiers and other personnel to carry out such dangerous missions on foot.
The Conference’s Exhibitors
The conference’s exhibits featured information about the cutting-edge programs and technologies of government agencies and companies. These included the U.S. Army’s DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center, Signature Science’s chemical detection handheld collector and analyzer platform, BATTELLE’s chemical and biological research and development program, Biomeme’s portable CBRN threat detection system, the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Consortium, Bertin Environics’ CBRN threat detection set, and Kappler’s CBRN protective garments. Several posters featured write-ups of subjects, such as Boston, MA based Noble’s “Overview of current c-UAS capabilities and their impact on today’s battlefield” by Pauline Leary and Michael Mackiewicz.
The NDIA CBRN Conference & Exhibition is a noteworthy event for those interested in learning about the emerging trends and implications of counterterrorism and global intelligence.
Joshua Sinai, Ph.D. is Professor of Practice in Intelligence & Global Security Studies at Capitol Technology University. At the University, he developed and teaches an undergraduate course on “Terrorism and CBRN Weapons.” With more than 35 years of experience in international security, national security, and homeland security studies with the U.S. government, academia, and the corporate sector, he is a well-published and active member of the global intelligence community. Contact Information: jbsinai@captechu.edu.