The Defense Department wants to spend less in fiscal 2021 on chemical and biological defense programs, budget documents show, in the middle of a pandemic and despite its own officials’ warning of a heightened risk of attacks on U.S. troops from such weapons.
After what Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper called a Defense Wide Review of spending in February, he proposed cutting $5.7 billion from dozens of programs to instead pay for hypersonic missiles, the nuclear arsenal and other weapons that, he said, were needed to deter or fight Russia and China.
Lost in the fine print and unmentioned in the press was a proposed drop in funding for research and procurement initiatives in the Chemical and Biological Defense Program — from $1.4 billion this fiscal year to $1.2 billion.
The armed services have dozens of programs, organizations and systems for dealing with chemical and biological weapons. But the chem-bio defense program centralizes the budget and oversight for the bulk of the military’s chem-bio efforts. It is managed by a deputy assistant secretary. It develops the technical tools — from medicines to military gear — that can detect and protect against chem-bio agents and help people respond to or recover from such unconventional weapon attacks or disease outbreaks.
Throughout the Trump administration, spending on the chem-bio program has lagged behind the rate of surge in the wider defense budget. The proposed fiscal 2021 cut would reduce spending on programs such as protective shelters for troops, decontamination gear and systems for detecting when dangerous agents are present, according to the budget documents.
