Chemical and Biological Defense

U.S. troops remain highly vulnerable to attack from biological and chemical agents because the Defense Department (DOD) has yet to address many shortcomings identified during the Persian Gulf War, including inadequate training, a lack of decontamination kits and other equipment, and a shortage of vaccine stocks. Problems in chemical and biological defense are likely to continue unless DOD designates this area a higher priority. This report discusses (1) DOD's actions to address chemical and biological warfare problems identified during the Persian Gulf War and (2) the current preparedness of U.S. ground forces to operate in a contaminated environment.

GAO found that: (1) the Department of Defense (DOD) has taken steps to improve the readiness of U.S. forces to operate in chemically or biologically contaminated environments, but equipment, training, and medical shortcomings persist and could cause needless casualties and a degradation of U.S. combat capability; (2) during the Gulf War, many early-deploying units did not have all of the chemical and biological detection, decontamination, and protective equipment they needed; (3) the services continue to place lower emphasis on chemical and biological defense activities than on other high-priority activities; (4) research and development efforts to improve the detection and decontamination of biological and chemical agents have progressed slower than planned because of other priorities and personnel shortages; (5) the Army and Marine Corps have acted to improve their biological and chemical training, but many problems encountered during the Gulf War persist; (6) there was little biological or chemical defense training included in joint training exercises because regional commanders in chief (CINC) believe that this training is the responsibility of the individual services and have assigned other types of training a higher priority; (7) medical units often lack adequate biological agent vaccine stocks and immunization plans, appropriate defense equipment, and sufficient instruction on how equipment is to be used; and (8) the lower emphasis the services give to chemical and biological defense activities is reflected in the funding, staffing, monitoring, and mission priority levels dedicated to these activities.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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