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News Media Resources: DTRA Fact Sheets - Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessments

Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessments

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) conducts 80-100 Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessments (JSIVAs) annually at Department of Defense (DoD) installations worldwide. Six teams determine vulnerabilities and provide options to assist installation commanders in mitigating or overcoming them. Team reports are provided to the installation commander, the Joint Staff and the appropriate combatant commander and military service chief.

Each seven-person team from the Assessments Division, Combat Support (CS) Directorate, consists of a team leader and military and civilian specialists. Teams normally spend five days assessing an installation.

A terrorist operations specialist looks at current threats and threat levels, the threat assessment process and operations security. The specialist also assesses observations, actions and attack mechanisms that may be employed by terrorist groups. Two security operations specialists collect information through interviews with key physical security and antiterrorism/force protection personnel. They review operational plans, personal protection procedures and security forces manning, training and equipment. A structural engineer interfaces with base engineers and planners, surveys selected structures, reviews architectural and structural drawings and performs quantitative analysis of blast effects to establish effective standoff distances. The structural engineer also provides a tutorial on the role engineering plays in the installation's overall force protection posture. The infrastructure engineer focuses on the installation's supporting infrastructure such as water, power and communications, and their protection against terrorist attacks. They also identify any potential single-node points of failure. An emergency management specialist focuses on the installation's preparedness to respond appropriately to a terrorist attack employing explosives, chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological weapons. The emergency management specialist also reviews public affairs, medical, emergency operations center, legal and communications programs.

The Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessment teams were formed in 1997 following a DoD task force report on the 1996 terrorist attack on Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia. The report reviewed the adequacy of security at Khobar Towers and the surrounding area as well as force protection funding, resources and coordination of intelligence and antiterrorism countermeasures on a large scale.

The task force found that the DoD had no published standards for force protection of fixed facilities. Their recommendations included: establish prescriptive DoD standards; designate a single DoD agency to develop, issue and assess compliance with the standards; provide the designated agency with sufficient resources to assist field commanders on a worldwide basis with force protection matters; and provide funds and the authority to the agency to manage research and development efforts to enhance force protection and physical security measures.

The Secretary of Defense designated the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the single point-of-contact for force protection programs. DoD guidelines require that each installation have a higher headquarters antiterrorism and force protection assessment at least every three years. DTRA helps installations meet this requirement through the JSIVAs. The agency also provides education and training assistance so combatant commanders and military service chiefs can establish teams and increase their antiterrorism and force protection knowledge base.

Defense Threat Reduction Agency

DTRA safeguards America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and mitigate its effects. This Department of Defense combat support agency is located at Fort Belvoir, Va., and operates field offices worldwide.

March 2007




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