homeland security forum responses(212)

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and nuclear weapons are a hot commodity of the twenty-first century. Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and nuclear weapons are a style of warfare, to bring the fear of an outside, or even an inside threat to the general population’s attention. CBRN can inflict a substantial amount of hurt, economically, and psychological damage to the people it effects. CBRN terrorism is one of the greatest threats from terrorists in the world. (e-International, 2012) After reading a little on CBRN and the present Terrorist groups, I found that some believe it is likely they will use or even acquire these types of weapons. They are considered “unconventional” for the present day according to e-International. (e-International, 2012)

According to the United States Army FM 3-11 the use of these types of weapons is more likely now because the government has a harder time to track them. For example, they are being built in underground facilities, and warehouses that make them hard to find or even gather any information on. After being in the Military for as long as I have, CBRN is always going to be a threat. It’s a simple way to control a massive amount of people and/or soldiers at one time. It is meant to do cause a mass amount of casualties, and possible destruction to personal and governmental property. I do believe that the possibility of a Chemical, Biological, radiological, or nuclear attack is more likely to happen when large amounts of casualties are the target. For terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda to be able to obtain these CBRN weapons I believe is more common now than ever before. With technology growing and rapidly changing as much as it has in the past ten years, it is much easier to fabricate and hide the production of these dangerous weapons. Technology has done more hurt to our world than good. Websites like Youtube.com publish videos showing how to make these types of dangerous weapons out of simple household items.

e-International Relations. 2012. How Appealing Are CBRN Weapons to Terrorist Groups.

United States Army. July 2011. Field Manual (FM) 3-11, Multiservice Doctrine for CBRN Operations.