Counterproliferation and Chemical-Biological Defense

Dr. Anna Johnson-Winegar, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Counterproliferation and Chemical/Biological Defense, addressed the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Center for Global Security on Wednesday, 7 February 2001 in the EMSL Auditorium. Dr Johnson-Winegar's Seminar described the efforts of the Department of Defense (DoD) in the twin areas of Counterproliferation and Chemical/Biological Defense. Although she is responsible for four mission areas, her seminar dealt on these two topics. She described the Counterproliferation mission as a multi-tiered approach, ranging from proliferation prevention, to deterrence, to counterforce operations, to active defense, passive defense, and the post hostility missions of consequence management and restoration of operations. In every case, her office is the DoD office responsible for equipping the warfighter with the tools and technologies needed to counter a WMD adversary in every tier mentioned. With respect to her Chemical/Biological Defense Program mission, Dr Johnson-Winegar stated that this program was established by Congress in 1994 in order to assign responsibility for overall coordination and integration of the United States chemical and biological warfare defense program within a single office in DoD. Similarly, her office is the single DoD manager for the chemical and biological medical defense program. As in the counterproliferation program, her mission is to equip the Armed Forces of the United States with those defense capabilities necessary to survive and successfully complete their operational activities in battlespace environments contaminated with chemical or biological warfare agents. Steward of over a billion dollar budget, Dr Johnson-Winegar described some of her research, development, and acquisition activities that go towards supporting this important mission.