National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team: Structured for Success or Failure?

The National Guard Bureau, following the publication of the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, and the 1998 Department of Defense Plan for Integrating National Guard and Reserve Component Support for Response to Attacks Using Weapons of Mass Destruction, created the Military Support Detachment-Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (MSD-RAID) team to assist in the consequence management of incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. The mission of the MSD-RAID, recently renamed the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team (WMD-CST), is to assess a suspected nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological event in support of a local incident commander; advise civilian responders regarding appropriate action; and facilitate requests for assistance to expedite the arrival of additional state and federal assets to help save lives, prevent human suffering, and mitigate great property damage. The National Guard has fielded twenty-seven of these teams and eventually plans to establish one in every state and territory. The fact that the WMD-CST program is still in its infancy presents the Department of Defense with a tremendous opportunity to modify the structure or mission of these teams, if necessary, before they are fully fielded to every state and territory. It is appropriate to evaluate whether or not these teams, initially fielded in 1998, satisfy a strategic necessity. They must be assessed as to whether or not they accomplish the objectives outlined in the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation. Their structure, mission, and capabilities must be analyzed to determine if they are able to successfully mitigate the consequences of a WMD incident. More important, however, is whether or not the contemporary threat environment warrants their existence. While the WMD-CST does enhance the National Guard's response capability, its mission and structure do not completely satisfy the strategic need that prompted its creation. The team's four-hour respo