‘Guardian’
Project to Bolster Force, Installation Security
By Gerry J.
Gilmore, AFPS
WASHINGTON,
May 8, 2003 – A new DoD force and installation security
project targeted against terrorist threats – to include
possible use of weapons of mass destruction — is slated to debut
Oct. 1.
The $1 billion
effort, named "Guardian," will ultimately bolster anti-terrorism
force protection and security at about 200 stateside installations
and overseas posts over the next five years, Army Brig. Gen. Stephen
Reeves, DoD’s program executive officer for chemical and biological
defense, said in an interview May 6.
"Guardian,"
according to Reeves, will provide affected military facilities
and their populations with enhanced protection against "chemical,
biological, radiological and nuclear threats."
The project
will also "integrate that (new) protection capability with
the existing force protection measures that are on that installation,"
he pointed out.
"Guardian,"
Reeves continued, "is really there to assist commanders in
providing force protection for (U.S. military) installations around
the world."
Reeves noted
the Joint Staff is working on a list of stateside and overseas
installations to participate in the project. Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul D. Wolfowitz will make the final selections.
"We’re
looking at 185 installations in the United States (and) 15 overseas"
to participate in the project, Reeves noted. Factors for selection,
the general explained, include whether the base is a power-projection
installation and the type of mission or missions it supports.
Project officials
are also recording those installation security measures already
in place, Reeves noted, to prevent redundancy.
Eventually,
he pointed out, "Guardian" will be applied DoD- wide.
"Over
the next five years we’re going to be doing the first 200 (installations),"
Reeves explained, noting that schedule "could be accelerated."
Ultimately,
"we’ll provide the same levels of protection – and
certainly have the same standards – for all of our installations
around the world," the general said.
A pilot security
program being conducted at selected Army, Navy, and Air Force
installations and being run with the Defense Threat Reduction
Agency "is helping to identify exactly what those standards
are," Reeves explained.
Determining
those standards, the general remarked, is a complex endeavor.
As installations’ chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
protections are integrated with force protections already in place,
he noted, threats unique to each base must also be taken into
account.
"We want
to be able to set standards that can also be ‘tailored’ to the
unique aspects of a given installation," Reeves remarked.
Such aspects, he noted, might include an installation’s physical
location and size, and its neighbors.
For example,
a U.S. military base may be adjacent to an "industrial plant
… that might present a toxic-industrial chemical threat,"
the general explained, or it could be a biological research facility
or a nuclear plant.
Consequently,
"Guardian" officials seek to match force protection
and installation security efforts with "exactly what’s going
on around" a given installation "so that the commander
has the best level of protection possible," Reeves noted.
Much of "Guardian,"
Reeves noted, involves emergency preparedness planning conducted
with the surrounding civilian community and performing related
training. In this way, besides enhancing force protection and
installation security, "Guardian" can provide installations
with first responders who can restore critical mission operations
following a terrorist attack.
Other project
assets, he pointed out, might include WMD- agent detectors or
medical surveillance provided from local hospitals. "Guardian,"
Reeves emphasized, also wants to ease the financial burden on
installations as much as possible.
For example,
pointing to the need for early warning and detection of biological
agents, he noted, "we have some very expensive detectors
we can put out there – and they cost a lot to run."
However, "we
look at the tradeoffs of doing automated detection against things
like medical surveillance – which in many cases can provide
us just as early warning or early warning enough in order to provide
treatment to people before they get sick."