various chemical scenarios. Evaluations of protective equipment for law enforcement and health care providers operating around the incident perimeter are also being conducted.

Additionally, the team has evaluated technical studies and conducted field evaluations to determine the best practices for mass decontamination of individuals. The chemical detectors available at hazardous materials units have been identified and some testing has been conducted to determine if they could detect chemical warfare agents. The performance of these detectors was also evaluated in the presence of possible interferents.

As the team continues improving the response to a chemical weapons terrorist incident at the local, state, and federal levels, additional issues are also identified. The team conducts market surveys and equipment evaluation to identify solution to the gaps or those issues. If commercial equipment is not available or directly applicable to the need, requirements are defined and are provided to OSD's Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) for its efforts. Mr. Dominguez will describe the TSWG in his testimony, and some of those efforts that are currently ongoing.

As we began our efforts to address the response to a biological incident, we found that there was little or no response to build on. Because of that situation, the Biological Warfare Improved Response Program has as its focus to outline the response to a biological incident and evaluate equipment and procedures for enhancing the response at the local, state, and federal level.

The BW program has developed a template for response to a BW incident by conducting a series of workshops and scenarios using a team of responders from across the Nation. As a template was developed, gaps were identified. The technical and operational requirements of these gaps were defined and the gaps were prioritized for work efforts. The template has been documented in our report, which will be posted to the domestic preparedness web page following its release.

We have also established a process to validate components of the template and systematically demonstrate the response template. A process has also been established to address the gaps with various other agencies, since many of these gaps fall in areas outside of our expertise and must be integrated into a total response. As solutions are defined and developed we are feeding them into the template and validating the process.

The other program Soldier and Biological Chemical CommandsSoldier and Biological Chemical Command supports is the Consequence Management Program, which is establishing state and regional response teams within the DOD Reserve component. Sir, you can probably understand why I say SBCCOM. Even I have trouble with the entire name. SBCCOM supported the development of the Utmost Advantage resource management model developed by the Consequence Management Program Integration Office.

Much of the initial equipment provided these teams is military or commercially available. We are using tried and true and tested products. Market surveys are conducted to identify product improvements for the next generation of equipment. Emerging technology will be used as we see it and, if we find it promising as advanced technology.

Representives from SBCCOM are participating on the Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability. This board consists of subject matter experts from local, state, and national response organizations, is co-chaired by DOD and DOJ.

This board has developed a standardized equipment list for WMD response operations which ensures equipment standardization and interopability at the local, state, and federal levels. This is a list of functional items, yet our equipment test program provides data on specific items within each functional category.

After the transition of the Domestic Preparedness Program in fiscal year 2001, the Department of Defense focus on the Improved Response Program will be to continue to enhance the capabilities of our Reserve component response teams and our installation responders, as well as to continue our support to the Department of Justice as they request. SBCCOM functional experts will continue to support this initiative as we have supported the Domestic Preparedness Program and the Consequence Management Program thus far.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The prepared statement of General Doesburg can be found in the Appendix on page 213.]

Mr. WELDON. Thank you, General.

And finally Mr. Dominguez. Welcome.

STATEMENT OF RAYMOND DOMINGUEZ, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR FORCES AND RESOURCES, OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, SPECIAL OPERATIONS AND LOW-INTENSITY CONFLICT

Secretary DOMINGUEZ. Thank you. A few minutes here just to set up some equipment that I will be talking about later in my presentation.

Mr. WELDON. You are not going to be using any agents on us, are you? There is a better way to get our attention than to do that. Secretary DOMINGUEZ. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. I am pleased to be here today to update you on the Counterterror Technical Support Program, or CTTS as we call it, and the interagency Technical Support Working Group, or TSWG. Additionally, I will update you on how some of these activities of both the CTTS and the TSWG have become increasingly important to state and local agencies involved in domestic prepared

ness.

In February 1997 the committee received a comprehensive briefing along with a display of counterterrorism and antiterrorism equipment developed under the CTTS program. In November 1997 I updated the committee on the progress of that program and specifically how it was increasing support to first responders. Much has happened over the last 15 months, and I am pleased to update you on that progress, but first I would like to review what the CTTS program and the TSWG programs are.

As you recall, the CTTS is a fast track research and development program that addresses domestic and international aspects of terrorism. CTTS projects are selected to meet the requirements identified and coordinated, through the TSWG, with other U.S. agencies and three countries: Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The CTTS program and the TSWG are long-standing and important parts of DOD's strategy to combat terrorism. Both track technology development in other DOD and interagency programs that may have applicability to overall U.S. efforts to combat terrorism. These include numerous technology development activities conducted by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the DOD Joint Chemical and Biological Defense Program. For example, the Chemical and Biological Defense Program is developing improved decontamination methods that will meet consequence management needs, so the TSWG takes these projects into account when developing its annual projects list.

Both the domestic and international programs provide us with opportunities to combine our efforts, avoid duplication, and accelerate placing equipment in operational use. The DOD executes this program to address the domestic and international requirements identified and prioritized by the Technical Support Working Group. Typically, equipment prototypes are fielded in one to three years. However, we are finding that longer term R&D is becoming necessary to find solutions to some very difficult operational problems. The Technical Support Working Group is a unique forum where both user and developer representatives from eight U.S. departments and over 50 U.S. organizations identify, coordinate and prioritize R&D requirements and recommend projects for funding. TSWG includes representatives from Defense, State, Justice, Transportation, Treasury, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Public Health Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In addition, the Technical Support Working Group includes and continues to increase its focus on the needs of state and local law enforcement and emergency agencies.

Participation in the TSWG by Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Institute of Justice, FEMA, and the Public Health Service, ensures that the activities of the working groups take into account the needs of state and local responders. As you know, these agencies provide information assistance to state and local first responders. Their involvement is important to the U.S. program to support first responders through sharing information, technology, capabilities, procedures, and to identify first responder requirements.

As I stated earlier, it has been an eventful 15 months for TSWG. TSWG has added the FBI to its Executive Steering Committee, and has also invited state and local representatives to participate directly in its process. Represented on the TSWG are the Capitol Police and the Virginia Department of Emergency Services.

Additionally, the TSWG has begun an outreach program to ensure that we are addressing adequately the needs of and getting the word out to state and local responders. This program includes participating in meetings of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Congressional Fire Services Institute, National Association of Technical Investigators, and cosponsoring a FEMA conference on emergency management. The TSWG has also welcomed National Guard and Reserve participation by including their R&D requirements in the TSWG interagency process.

The DOD, through the TSWG process, was a key participant in working with the Department of Justice to develop the technology portion of the Attorney General's 5-year Interagency Counterterrorism and Technology Crime Plan. The Technical Support Working Group has been and will continue to coordinate with the National Domestic Preparedness Office and the Office of Justice Programs to ensure that in meeting domestic preparedness needs, there is a streamlined approach that avoids multilayering of organizations, focuses coordination of R&D activity at a single point in government, and provides state and local jurisdictions effective access to state-of-the-art technology.

I now want to bring to your attention a few projects. I have got them in my statement. I have some additional ones, but I just wanted to highlight a couple of the projects for fiscal year 1999 that the counterterrorism support program is addressing for first responders at the Federal, State, and local levels.

You will hear a lot about detectors, and a lot of detectors are geared toward detecting military grade chemical agents but we have not tested these chemical detectors against ingredients or agents you can find on the Internet, so we are going to run an evaluation program of existing chemical agent detectors against the eight threat agents most likely to be encountered by first responders. This is a joint TSWG/National Institute of Justice (NIJ) effort that relies on the threat study that TSWG is conducting in cooperation with NIJ.

We are also developing a process, a capability for purpose of evidence of chain of custody to gather samples of air, water, and soil for later analysis for the presence of chemical and biological agents, and this project we are doing jointly with the National Institute of

Justice.

Now I would like to update you on some of our completed or nearly completed projects that relate to domestic preparedness. As you may know, state and local responders have already had in their inventories a Percussion Actuated Non-electric Disrupter. It is called the PAN Disrupter, and right now it is to disable explosive devices. It was developed by TSWG, and through the FBI is in the inventory of every bomb squad in the country.

What I would like to do is start with the I will start from your right and work to the left. But two years ago we demonstrated a suit that provided protection from chemical/biological and explosive threats. While this suit was fielded with DOD users, it never made it into the hands of state and local responders because it was not NIOSH approved. We are about to correct that situation.

The manufacturer of the system has developed a newer, lightweight version known as the SRS-5. When combined with existing NIOSH-approved self-contained breathing apparatus such as the Biopack 240, the system will provide the bomb squad member with protection from both explosive and chem/bio threats. We are working jointly with the National Institute of Justice to fully test the suit against the full range of threats, evaluate options for lowering the system cost, and perform a limited field evaluation with bomb squads across the country.

The real-time radiography or the RTR-4 is a system used by bomb squads or other emergency responders to determine the con

tents of a suspicious package. This system will provide responders with critical information to help identify whether a threat is an explosive device, a chemical agent, or a biological agent.

It is an x-ray system, basically. In previous days we used to take an x-ray film, take a picture of what is in the contents, go back and develop it. If there is a problem with the picture, you have to go back and do it again. This is a real-time system. It uses digital xray processing, and we can set it up and an operator at a distance can evaluate the contents of the package and make a determination on whether it is a threat or not. This system is now commercially available.

The x-ray pulse controller, the next piece or item, is when some bomb components are sensitive to x-rays and this device allows responders to x-ray devices without the danger of detonating the device. This is an example of an improvement that will be made on the RTR-4. This was designed for both state and local responders as well as military explosive ordnance disposal forces, and it is going through technology transfer and will be commercially available before summer.

Everything we do is not high-tech. We do some things that are not high-tech. Right next to it are called overpack bags and basically are simple plastic bags. It is an example, as I said, of a nonhigh-tech piece of gear. These bags are intended for use by civilian and military responders. When suspicious material or a device is discovered and is determined it can be moved safely, the item would be placed in the bag for proper transport and then for further analysis.

This is now commercially available. The project is complete. It was originally asked for by Special Operations forces. It is now available to the Marine Corps CBIRF and State and local responders as well as the Army tactical escort unit.

The next device is a modular universal training device, and this device was again designed for both civilian bomb squads as well as military explosive ordnance disposal teams. It simulates booby traps that may be associated with improvised explosives, whether they be chemical, biological, or just explosive agents. And this system is now commercially available at the state and local agencies. The next-that was over here-the next one is a hand-held radiation monitor. This was a piece of equipment that was originally requested by Special Operations forces, basically shooters going into an environment where there may be some nuclear material. It is small. It can be strapped to the body, but basically it is to detect gamma radiation and neutrons. While it is more expensive than existing gamma-only detectors, it is extremely important to detect both types of radiation when searching for a threat device. This system is now, as of last week, commercially available.

The next item is a nuclear material identification system. Sometimes it is not only important to know that there is some nuclear device around, but what kind of material is it? This system was designed to specifically identify what the nuclear material is. It relies on gamma spectroscopy, is intended for use when a radiation detector finds nuclear material and the users need to know if that material is either a threat or some commonly found either industrial or medical isotope. There are currently three systems on the commer