Operationalizing CBRN Core Functions
By Major Derek E. Taylor
Article published on: June 1, 2024 in the Army Chemical Review 2024 Annual Issue
Read Time: < 7 mins
This article presents a brief description of the role of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN)
staff officers in the operations process. It summarizes the operations process, introduces the CBRN core
functions, explains how to operationalize these core functions within the operations process, and highlights the
critical CBRN staff contributions that take place during mission planning to help commanders develop hazard
awareness and understanding.
Operations Process
The U.S. Army conducts multidomain operations to create and exploit relative advantages in order to achieve
objectives, defeat enemy forces, and consolidate gains on behalf of joint force commanders. The Army framework for
organizing and activating command and control is referred to as the operations process (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Operations process
Commanders use the operations process to drive the conceptual and detailed planning necessary to understand an
operational environment; visualize and describe the desired end state of the operation and the operational
approach; make and articulate decisions; and direct, lead, and assess operations. Each operational environment has unique
characteristics and challenges for which commanders must account. One example is a CBRN environment.
CBRN environments are operational environments that include CBRN threats and hazards and their potential
effects. CBRN threats and
hazards may shape the operational environment, disrupt lines of communication, reduce operational tempo, and
degrade combat power. Additionally, CBRN operational environments may influence local populations and require
increased integration with joint, interagency, multinational, and local authorities. Commanders conduct CBRN
operations to address these challenges.
CBRN operations refers to “the employment of capabilities that assess, protect against, and
mitigate the entire range of [CBRN] incidents to enable freedom of action.” These three actions of assess, protect, and
mitigate constitute the CBRN core functions. Incorporating the CBRN core functions into the operations process
allows commanders to prevail during CBRN operations.
CBRN Core Functions
Assessing threats and hazards is a continuous process that facilitates proactive decision making. Assessing
threats and hazards includes—
- Evaluating current hazards.
- Identifying potential threats and hazards.
- Evaluating current vulnerabilities.
- Understanding current capabilities.
- Modeling potential effects.
- Protection against CBRN threats and hazards encompasses the execution of physical defenses
to negate the effects of CBRN hazards on—
- Personnel.
- Equipment.
- Installations.
- Facilities.
- Infrastructure.
- Mitigation encompasses the planning and actions taken to prepare for, respond to, and
recover from contamination associated with CBRN threats and hazards in order to continue military
operations. Tasks associated
with mitigation include—
- Defeating, disabling, or disposing of weapons of mass destruction.
- Providing scalable responses to CBRN incidents.
- Supporting reconnaissance and decontamination operations.
Commanders at every echelon possess the ability to perform the three CBRN core functions; however, CBRN forces
provide commanders with an enhanced capability to perform these functions. When they incorporate CBRN core
functions into the operations process, commanders gain the hazard awareness and understanding needed to make
sound decisions in CBRN environments.
Core Functions and the Operations Process
The operations process consists of four main activities—planning, preparing, executing, and assessing.
These operations process activities are not discrete; they overlap and recur as circumstances demand (see Figure
2).
Figure 2. Operations process in a CBRN environment
During planning, the CBRN staff conducts assessments, creates a CBRN defense plan, and models potential
incidents. The result is a CBRN defense plan that is integrated with the broader mission and published in an
operations order annex. While
planning may initiate an iteration of the operations process, planning does not stop with the production of an
order. After completing the initial order, the commander and staff continuously revise the plan as needed, based
on changing circumstances.
Preparation for a mission often begins early during planning. To prepare, CBRN staff may recommend employing
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to answer priority intelligence requirements. Additionally, subordinate units
may need to check protective equipment and detectors, increase their protective posture, and conduct rehearsals.
Rehearsals play an important role, as tactics, techniques, and procedures may vary during the execution of
missions in CBRN environments. Finally, preparation for a followon mission may overlap with execution of the
current mission.
Mission execution involves implementing the CBRN defense plan. Commanders assess progress and adjust the plan
based on their situational understanding. CBRN defense plan tasks may include employing assets for
reconnaissance, surveillance, exploitation, or decontamination. They may also include implementing targeting
plans against threat units and infrastructure to reduce the likelihood of CBRN weapon employment. Realtime
information sharing through warning and reporting systems helps units to avoid hazards, staffs to quickly
process CBRN support requests, and commanders to appropriately assess the situation and prioritize units to
receive CBRN support.
Assessing is a continuous activity that influences the other three operations process activities. It involves the integration of
CBRN staffs and process working groups during mission planning steps. CBRN reports provide input for future assessments and valuable
insight into the success of CBRN defense plans.
Mission Planning
Most tacticallevel staffs employ the military decisionmaking process, which is an iterative planning methodology
used to understand the situation and mission, develop a course of action, and produce an operation plan or
order. Through the military decisionmaking process, the staff helps the commander make informed decisions and
synchronize those decisions into a fully developed plan or order.
Throughout the decisionmaking process, staff officers prepare recommendations using accurate information and
assessments obtained from updated running estimates within their functional areas of expertise. CBRN staff officers contribute
to the steps of the military decisionmaking process by—
- Updating CBRN running estimates.
- Conducting CBRN assessments.
- Developing an initial CBRN defense plan.
- Modeling potential incidents.
- Publishing the final CBRN defense plan as an annex to the operations plan or order.
Figure 3. CBRN contributions during mission planning
Figure 3 shows how these contributions align with each step of the military decisionmaking process and the CBRN
core functions.
Hazard Awareness and Understanding
When properly integrated into the operations process, CBRN staffs help commanders gain hazard awareness and
understanding. Commanders use this awareness and understanding to—
- Assess the operation.
- Articulate risk decisions.
- Visualize, describe, and direct CBRN protection and mitigation efforts.
- Lead the operation toward stated objectives.
Commanders and staffs use several integrating processes to adapt to changing circumstances throughout the
operations process. Key
integrating processes include—
- Intelligence preparation of the operational environment.
- Targeting.
- Knowledge management.
- Information collection.
- Risk management.
Figure 4. Development of hazard awareness and understanding
When CBRN staffs align integrating processes, unit battle rhythm events, and CBRN core functions, they contribute
to improved hazard awareness and understanding throughout the operations process (see Figure 4). Ultimately,
hazard awareness and understanding enables commanders to execute their portion of the operations process and
prevail in CBRN environments.
Conclusion
By incorporating the CBRN core functions of assessing, protecting, and mitigating into the operations process,
commanders gain hazard awareness and understanding, which ultimately enables them to visualize, describe,
direct, assess, and lead their formations toward mission accomplishment and to prevail during CBRN operations.
Endnotes
1. Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations, 1
October 2022
2. Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 5-0, The
Operations Process, 31 July 2019.
4. Joint Publication (JP) 3-11, Operations in
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Environments, 28 October 2020.
5. FM 3-11, Chemical, Biological, Radiological,
and Nuclear Operations, 23 May 2019.
16. FM 5-0, Planning and Orders Production,
16 May 2022.
Author
Major Taylor is the chief of the CBRN Doctrine Branch, Doctrine Division, Fielded Force Integration
Directorate, U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He holds a
bachelor’s degree in applied physics with minors in mathematics and philosophy from Brigham Young
University, Provo, Utah, and a master’s degree in military art and science from the Army Command and
General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.