Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Senior Enlisted Advisor | |
Parent agency | U.S. Department of Defense |
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Website | www.dtra.mil |
United States Armed Forces |
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Executive departments |
Staff |
Military departments |
Military services |
Command structure |
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is both a defense agency and a
Organizational history
DTRA was officially established on October 1, 1998,[4] as a result of the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative by consolidating several DoD organizations, including the Defense Special Weapons Agency (successor to the Defense Nuclear Agency) and the On-Site Inspection Agency.[5] The Defense Technology Security Administration and the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense were also incorporated into the new agency.[6]
In 2002, DTRA published a detailed history of its predecessor agencies, Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947–1997, the first paragraph of which makes a brief statement about the agencies which led up to the formation of DTRA:
Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947–1997, traces the development of the
Manhattan Engineering District (MED) in 1947, AFSWP was formed to provide military training in nuclear weapons' operations. Over the years, its sequential descendant organizations have been the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) from 1959 to 1971, the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) from 1971 to 1996, and the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, DSWA, the On-Site Inspection Agency, the Defense Technology Security Administration, and selected elements of the Office of Secretary of Defense were combined to form the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).[7]
DTRA employs approximately 1,400 DoD civilians and 800 uniformed service members at more than a dozen permanent locations worldwide.
In 2005, the
In 2012, the Standing Joint Force Headquarters for Elimination (SJFHQ-E) was relocated to the DTRA/SCC-WMD headquarters at Fort Belvoir. This centralized the DoD's Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction operations, a move recommended in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.[11]
On September 30, 2016, the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency (JIDA) became part of DTRA and was renamed the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO) in accordance with the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In Section 1532 of the NDAA, Congress directed the DoD to move JIDA to a military department or under an existing defense agency.[12][13]
DTRA requested a base budget of $2.0 billion for fiscal year 2023 (FY23), including $998 million for Operation and Maintenance, $654 million for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, $342 million for Cooperative Threat Reduction, and $14 million for Procurement.[8]
Responsibilities
Destruction of Soviet arms
After the end of the
Nuclear Test Personnel Review
The Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) program is the DoD program that confirms veteran participation in U.S. nuclear tests from 1945 to 1992, and the occupation forces of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Members of this group are sometimes referred to as atomic veterans or atomic vets.
If a veteran is a confirmed participant in these events, NTPR may provide either an actual or estimated radiation dose received by the veteran. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) may request this information from DTRA as required.
Arms control treaty responsibilities
DTRA is responsible for US reporting under the New START Treaty and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
DTRA is also responsible for reducing the threat of conventional war, especially in Europe, by participating in various arms control treaties to which the United States is a party, such as the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, the Transparency in Armaments activity of the United Nations, and the Wassenaar Arrangement, as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Plutonium Production Reactor Agreement, the Dayton Peace Accords, the Vienna Document and the Global Exchange of Military Information program under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Domestic chemical and biological management
DTRA has the responsibility to manage and integrate the Department of Defense chemical and biological defense science and technology programs.[14] In accordance with the Recommendation 174 (h) of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission, part of the Chemical Biological Defense Research component of the DTRA was relocated to Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland in 2011.[15][16] This represented a move of about ten percent of the staff of the Chemical Biological Defense Research component of DTRA to Aberdeen Proving Ground; the rest of the staff remain at Fort Belvoir.
Notable missions, projects, and programs
Ebola (2003-2014)
DTRA has spent approximately $300 million on scientific R&D efforts since 2003, developing vaccines and therapeutic treatments against
DTRA also funded and managed the research on the EZ1
The
Transport Isolation System (2014)
DTRA was the program manager for designing, testing, contracting, and producing the Transport Isolation System (TIS), This sealed, self-contained patient containment system can be loaded into
Syria's chemical weapons (2014)
DTRA was one of the key
Two FDHS units destroyed more than 600 tons of
Massive Ordnance Penetrator (to 2010)
DTRA funded, managed, and tested the
Project MAXIMUS (to 2003)
In 2003, a DTRA task force was identifying, collecting, and securing radiological material in Iraq as part of
COVID-19
In late 2019, DTRA established the Discovery of Medical Countermeasures Against Novel Entities (DOMANE) program. Shortly afterwards, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and DOMANE started researching existing, pre-approved medications like Pepcid (famotidine) for potential cost-effective treatments for COVID-19.[35][36][37]
Awards and official recognition
Joint Meritorious Unit Award
DTRA and its legacy agencies have been awarded numerous Joint Meritorious Unit Awards (JMUA) since the JMUA was implemented in 1982 (made retroactive to 1979):[38][39]
Defense Nuclear Agency
- 1st JMUA: 1 July 1981 – 20 June 1984
- 2nd JMUA: 1 January 1993 – 31 May 1995
On-Site Inspection Agency
- 1st JMUA: 15 January 1988 – 31 December 1988
- 2nd JMUA: 1 January 1989 – 30 July 1993
- 3rd JMUA: 1 August 1993 – 31 July 1996
- 4th JMUA: 1998
Defense Special Weapons Agency
- 1st JMUA: 1 June 1995 – 30 September 1998
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- 1st JMUA: 1 October 1998 – 5 March 2000
- 2nd JMUA: 6 March 2000 – 30 June 2003
- 3rd JMUA: 1 October 2009 – 20 September 2011
- 4th JMUA: 1 May 2012 – 1 November 2014
Directors
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2021) |
- Jay C. Davis (1998–2001)
- Robert P. Bongiovi (2001, acting)
- Stephen M. Younger (2001–2004)
- Trudy H. Clark (2004–2005, acting)
- James A. Tegnelia (2005-2009)[40]
- Kenneth A. Myers III (2008–2016)
- Shari Durand (2016-2017, acting)
- Michael L. Bruhn (2017, acting)
- Vayl S. Oxford (2017–2021)[41]
- Dr. Rhys M. Williams (2021–2022, Acting)
- Rebecca Hersman (2022–Present) [42]
See also
References
- ^ "DTRA Leadership".
- ^ "DTRA Mission". Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
- ^ "DoD Directive 5105.62, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)" (PDF).
- ISBN 978-0-309-11158-4.
- ^ "Department of Defense Reform Initiative Directive #6 – Appointment of the Team to Create the Defense Threat Reduction and Treaty Compliance Agency". Office of the Secretary of Defense. 3 December 1997. Archived from the original on 2 November 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ^ "Responding to War, Terrorism and WMD Proliferation: History of DTRA, 1998–2008" (PDF). DTRA History Series. 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
- ^ "Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947–1997" (PDF). DTRA History Series. 2002. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
- ^ a b "DTRA Overview Brief" (PDF). Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
- ^ "Responding to War, Terrorism and WMD Proliferation: History of DTRA, 1998–2008" (PDF). DTRA History Series. 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
- ^ "USSOCOM deputy commander visits USSTRATCOM". U.S. Strategic Command. USSTRATCOM Public Affairs. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ^ "Quadrennial Defense Review (2010)" (PDF). 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ Judson, Jen (February 2, 2016). "JIDA To Become JIDO Under Defense Threat Reduction Agency". Defense News. Sightline Media Group. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
- ^ Pellerin, Cheryl (October 3, 2016). "Improvised Threats Organization Becomes Part of Defense Threat Reduction Agency". DoD News. Defense Media Activity. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ^ "DoD Directive 5160.05e, Roles and Responsibilities Associated with the Chemical and Biological Defense (CBD) Program (CBDP)" (PDF). DoD. October 9, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2007. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ^ "Appendix Q, Commission's Final Recommendations, page Q-82" (PDF). DoD. September 8, 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ^ "BRAC Implementation Package Description" (PDF). DoD Comptroller. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 23, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
- ^ Pellerin, Cheryl (14 December 2014). "DTRA Medical Countermeasures Help West African Ebola Crisis". DoD News, Defense Media Activity.
- ^ "Experimental Ebola treatment protects some primates even after disease symptoms appear". Science Daily. 21 August 2013.
- ^ Kaustinen, Kelsey (September 2014). "FDA green-lights DoD Ebola diagnostic". DDNews. Vol. 11, no. 10. Old River Publications LLC.
- ^ "Statement of Mr. Kenneth A. Myers III Director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency And Director, U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction On Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Strategy and the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Budget Request for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Chemical Biological Defense Program: Before the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee Committee on Armed Services United States House of Representatives" (PDF). House Armed Services Committee. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
- ^ "MRIGlobal to Deploy Mobile Labs to Sierra Leone". GLOBAL BIODEFENSE. 16 December 2014.
- ^ Locker, Ray (2 December 2014). "Pentagon rushes new transport isolation units for Ebola". USA Today. Gannett.
- ^ Scaggs, John (24 November 2014). "Air Force Helps Design Transport Isolation System". PRODUCT Design & Development. 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs.
- ^ Kiekow, Anthony (23 January 2015). "Scott Air Force Basse unveils new Transport Isolation System". FOX2 KTVI.
- ^ "DoD Announces New Capability to Transport Infectious Patients". GLOBAL BIODEFENSE. 28 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Mission Accomplished for MV Cape Ray". GLOBAL BIODEFENSE. 19 August 2014.
- ^ Kennedy, Don (Spring 2014). "Threat Negation on the Move". CST&CBRNE Source Book SECURITY&BORDER PROTECTION.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Hennigan, W.J. (18 August 2014). "US completes task of destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ^ Bendavid, Naftali (23 July 2015). "Dangerous Mission: Destroying Chemical Weapons at Sea". Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "Senior leader accepts top-level defense awards at Pentagon". Vance Air Force Base. 3 December 2014. Archived from the original on 2015-11-21.
- ^ "MASSIVE ORDNANCE PENETRATOR fact sheet". US Air Force. 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
- ^ GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) / Direct Strike Hard Target Weapon / Big BLU
- ^ "DTRA Fact Sheets". Defense Threat Reduction Agency. July 2007. Archived from the original on 2009-02-23. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Responding to War, Terrorism and WMD Proliferation: History of DTRA, 1998–2008" (PDF). DTRA History Series. 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
- ^ Phillips, Revell; Taylor, Dale (2021-02-23). "A New DOMANE for the Pandemic Era". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Archived from the original on 2022-03-12. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
- DVIDS. February 4, 2021.
- ^ Eban, Katherine (October 5, 2020). "Quack Cures Lose Their Appeal Now That Trump Himself Is Sick With COVID-19". Vanity Fair.
- ^ "Table 1. Joint Meritorious Unit Award – Approved DoD Activities" (PDF). Department of Defense OEPM. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
- ^ "Responding to War, Terrorism and WMD Proliferation: History of DTRA, 1998–2008" (PDF). DTRA History Series. 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
- ^ "Dr. James Tegnelia".
- ^ "Vayl S. Oxford Named Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director" (Press release). May 22, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
- ^ "DTRA Director".
External links
- DTRA, the official web site of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- DoD Directive 5105.62, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
- Responding to War, Terrorism, and WMD Proliferation: History of DTRA, 1998–2008, DTRA History Series
- Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947–1997, DTRA History Series
- Defense's Nuclear Agency, 1947–1997, DTRA History Series
- Defense Special Weapons Agency 50th Anniversary, 1947–1997, DTRA History Series