DECEMBER 18, 2024 – The Department of Defense released today, the 2024 Chemical and Biological Defense Program (2024 CBDP) Enterprise Strategy. It replaces the 2020 CBDP strategy and positions the Department to ensure the total force to carry out its missions in the face of advanced chemical and biological threats.
Taking its lead from the 2022 National Defense Strategy, this strategy prioritizes delivery of operationally relevant chemical and biological defense (CBD) capabilities at speed and scale, to sustain and strengthen U.S. deterrence against the People’s Republic of China as the pacing challenge and Russia as the acute threat. The new strategy reinforces other strategic guidance including the 2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, inaugural National Defense Industrial Strategy, and the Biodefense Posture Review. It also calls for tighter integration of CBD capabilities with international Allies and partners to ensure our combined armed forces can deter or prevail against advanced chemical and biological threats.
“Strategic competition and rapid technological changes are making chemical and biological threats harder to defend against and increasingly attractive to adversaries,” said Ian Watson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense. “This strategy creates the urgency and change necessary to continue to outpace our adversaries and the threat.”
The CBDP develops chemical and biological defense material capabilities for all the Military Services. DoD is increasingly prioritizing CBD modernization to ensure the Joint Force is equipped to carry out all its missions in the face of chemical and biological threats.
To deliver operationally relevant CBD capabilities at speed and scale, the strategy aligns the Department’s efforts in four ways:
- Generate material solutions that increase decision space, reduce initial operational impact, and rapidly restore combat power.
- Pursue technical enablers and innovative approaches that accelerate capability delivery at sufficient scales.
- Posture the Chemical and Biological Defense Program around delivering operationally relevant capabilities at speed and scale.
- Leverage and expand interagency, international, industry, and academic partners.
You can read the full strategy on the DoD website here.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs (OASD(NCB)) leads DoD efforts to ensure a safe, secure, and effective U.S. nuclear deterrent. As the world returns to Great Power competition and the recognition that threats against the United States, its allies, and its interests are both proliferating and becoming more difficult to challenge, OASD(NCB) is at the forefront of U.S. efforts to sustain and modernize the nuclear deterrent. From the operational, to the administrative, to the speed of response and production, OASD(NCB) is reshaping the way DoD meets and responds to weapons of mass destruction threats.