Defense Threat Reduction Agency
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is both a defense agency and a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense for countering weapons of mass destruction and supporting the nuclear enterprise. Its stated mission is to provide "cross-cutting solutions to enable the Department of Defense, the United States Government, and international partners to Deter strategic attack against the United States and its allies; Prevent, reduce, and counter WMD and emerging threats; and Prevail against WMD-armed adversaries in crisis and conflict." DTRA is headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The DTRA mission, organization and management, responsibilities and functions, relationships, authorities, and administration are defined in DoD Directive 5105.62, Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Organizational history
DTRA was officially established on 1 October 1998, as a result of the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative by consolidating several DoD organizations, including the Defense Special Weapons Agency and the On-Site Inspection Agency. 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.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 Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, and its descendant government organizations, from its original founding in 1947 to 1997. After the disestablishment of the Manhattan Engineering District 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 from 1959 to 1971, the Defense Nuclear Agency from 1971 to 1996, and the Defense Special Weapons Agency 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 employs approximately 1,400 DoD civilians and 800 uniformed service members at more than a dozen permanent locations worldwide. Most personnel are at DTRA headquarters at Fort Belvoir. Approximately 15% of the workforce is split between Kirtland Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and the Nevada National Security Site, where they test and support the U.S. military's nuclear mission. The remaining 15% of the workforce is stationed in Germany, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Kenya, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. DTRA also has liaisons with the U.S. military's Combatant Commands, the National Guard Bureau, the FBI and other U.S. government interagency partners.
In 2005, the United States Strategic Command was designated as the lead Combatant Command for the integration and synchronization of DoD's efforts in support of the government's "Combating WMD" objectives. It was at this time that the SCC-WMD was co-located with DTRA. The Combat Command designation was changed again in 2017 when responsibility was moved to U.S. Special Operations Command.
In 2012, the Standing Joint Force Headquarters for Elimination 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.
On 30 September 2016, the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency became part of DTRA and was renamed the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization in accordance with the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. In Section 1532 of the NDAA, Congress directed the DoD to move JIDA to a military department or under an existing defense agency.
DTRA requested a base budget of $2.0 billion for fiscal year 2023, 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.
In her February 2024 Director’s Strategic Intent 2022-2027, DTRA Director Rebecca Hersman noted that DTRA would transition its intelligence resources and authorities to the Defense Intelligence Agency
Responsibilities
Destruction of Soviet arms
After the end of the Cold War, DTRA and its predecessor agencies implemented the DoD aspects of several treaties that assist former Eastern Bloc countries in the destruction of Soviet era nuclear weapons sites, biological weapons sites, and chemical weapons sites in an attempt to avert potential weapons proliferation in the post-Soviet era as part of the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program.Nuclear Test Personnel Review
The Nuclear Test Personnel Review 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. 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 and the Department of Justice may request this information from DTRA as required.Members of this group are sometimes referred to as atomic veterans or atomic vets.
In addition, NTPR supports the Atomic Veterans Service Recognition Program. This program recognizes that the service and sacrifice of the Atomic Veterans directly contributed to our Nation‘s continued freedom and prosperity during the period following World War II, and was pivotal to our Nation‘s defense during the Cold War era. For the Secretary of War, it awards the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal and the Atomic Veteran’s Service Certificate.
Arms control treaty">Arms control">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. In accordance with the Recommendation 174 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. 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 viral hemorrhagic fever, including Ebola. Starting in 2007, DTRA partnered with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to fund research on the drug now called ZMapp, which has since been used on several patients.DTRA also funded and managed the research on the EZ1 assay used to detect and diagnose the presence of the Ebola Zaire virus in humans. EZ1 was given Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in August 2014. DTRA first developed EZ1 as part of a 2011 "bio-preparedness initiative" for the United States Department of Defense to prepare for a possible Ebola outbreak. EZ1 was used to identify infected patients in West Africa.
The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program provided for the DTRA to award a $4 million contract to MRIGlobal to "configure, equip, deploy and staff two quick response mobile laboratory systems to support the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa." The labs were deployed to Sierra Leone.
Transport Isolation System (2014)
DTRA was the program manager for the Transport Isolation System, overseeing its design, testing, contracting, and production. The TIS is a sealed, self-contained patient containment unit that can be loaded into the United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster or C-130 Hercules cargo planes for aeromedical evacuation. The TIS was designed for any U.S. troops exposed to or infected with Ebola while serving in Operation United Assistance, but it can also be used for transporting anyone else exposed to or infected with a highly contagious disease. It can hold eight patients lying down, 12 sitting, or a combination of both. DTRA worked with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and United States Transportation Command on the TIS; St. Louis-based Production Products was awarded a sole-source contract to produce 25 TIS units.Syria's chemical weapons (2014)
DTRA was one of the key United States Department of Defense agencies that developed the Field Deployable Hydrolysis System used to destroy Syria's chemical weapons aboard the U.S.-flagged container ship MV Cape Ray in the summer of 2014 after Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile under international pressure and in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118. DTRA partnered with the United States Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center to develop the FDHS and then modify it for ship-borne operations after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to turn over his country's poison gas arsenal and chemical weapon production equipment to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, but no country volunteered to host the destruction process.Two FDHS units destroyed more than 600 tons of Sarin and mustard agents, completing the task several weeks ahead of schedule. The remaining materials were then taken to Finland and Germany for final disposal. DTRA was awarded its third Joint Meritorious Unit Award for successfully destroying Syria's declared chemical weapons.