The Department of Defense announced it has issued the 2024 Chemical and Biological Defense Program, or CBDP, with an enterprise strategy focused on rapid and at-scale deterrence of advanced threats. “This strategy creates the urgency and change necessary to continue to outpace our adversaries and the threat,” said Ian Watson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense.
The CBDP, which revises its 2020 iteration, builds upon the 2022 National Defense Strategy prioritizing deterrents against threats from China and Russia. The new program also supports other tactical guidance, such as the 2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, the National Defense Industrial Strategy and the Biodefense Posture Review.
Call for Technical Enablers and Innovators
The program is geared toward four DOD goals in delivering chemical and biological defense, or CBD, capabilities at speed and scale. The objectives include the delivery of operationally relevant capabilities and creation of CBD advantages, such as materiel solutions enabling restoration of combat power. The program will also seek technical enablers and innovations in CBD and tap and expand partnerships with government, industry, academia and U.S. allies.
CBD-related efforts announced recently include a Defense Threat Reduction Agency solicitation issued in May for products and services related to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat reduction with a potential total value of $3.5 billion.
