JACKSON, Miss. – U.S. military units trained for domestic nuclear forensics missions with interagency partners during Exercise Prominent Hunt in Jackson, Mississippi.
Soldiers from the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command’s Nuclear Disablement Team (Infrastructure) 2 and CBRNE Response Team 3, 46th Chemical Company (Technical Escort), certified to serve on the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Ground Collection Task Force during Exercise Prominent Hunt, April 30 – May 2.
As a part of the FBI-led interagency task force, the NTNF Ground Collection Task Force gathers and packages samples of radioactive fallout that enable partner agencies to conduct forensic analysis for attribution.
Airmen from the Patrick Space Force Base, Florida-headquartered Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) also qualified for the task force during the exercise.
Airmen from AFTAC are trained to conduct assessments on the ground and in the air and then forward the samples to a network of laboratories for analysis.
Nuclear Disablement Team 2 and CBRNE Response Team 3 are part of the 20th CBRNE Command, the U.S. Department of Defense’s premier all hazards formation.
The U.S. military’s only Nuclear Disablement Teams — NDT 1, NDT 2 and NDT 3 – are all stationed at the 20th CBRNE Command Headquarters on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
In addition to the three Nuclear Disablement Teams, the multifunctional 20th CBRNE Command is home to 75 percent of the active-duty U.S. Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear specialists, as well as the 1st Area Medical Laboratory, CBRNE Analytical and Remediation Activity and five Weapons of Mass Destruction Coordination Teams.
From 19 bases in 16 states, Soldiers and U.S. Army civilians from the 20th CBRNE Command deploy to confront and defeat the world’s most dangerous hazards during joint, interagency and multinational operations.
CBRNE Response Team 3 is part of the 46th Chemical Company (Technical Escort), 22nd Chemical Battalion, 48th Chemical Brigade and 20th CBRNE Command. The team is stationed on Fort Bliss, Texas.
U.S. Army CBRNE Response Teams tackle a variety of challenging missions, including initial sampling, limited decontamination, packaging, escorting, detection, munitions assessment, explosive threat mitigation and contaminated sensitive site exploitation.
The Nuclear Disablement Teams are the military's uniformed subject matter experts in radiological and nuclear operations on the task force.
Lt. Col. Christopher Gundersen, the team chief of Nuclear Disablement Team 2, said the exercise enabled interagency partners to train for the high stakes mission of responding to a nuclear detonation in the U.S. homeland.
“To observe and participate in the Incident Command System in action was truly professionally gratifying,” said Gundersen. “It truly was a whole of government solution with the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and state law enforcement – achieving unity of action through unity of effort.”
Gundersen said teamwork is the key to success in interagency exercises like Prominent Hunt.
“It takes a team – a team of teams as a matter of fact. Knowing what the DoD brings to the fight, being ready and willing to apply it and possessing the ability to engage others across the interagency with a considerable degree of humility and cooperation is the key to successful interagency operations,” said Gundersen.
“The DoD units don’t have all the answers,” said Gundersen. “We must establish, integrate and collaborate with our U.S. government partners to seek solutions to these sorts of challenges.”
In addition to serving on NTNF Ground Collection Task Force, Nuclear Disablement Teams directly contribute to the nation’s strategic deterrence by staying ready to exploit and disable nuclear and radiological Weapons of Mass Destruction infrastructure and components to deny near-term capability to adversaries.
“Most NDT Soldiers possess years of proven combat experience in terms of operating in challenging situations,” said Gundersen. “We also bring world class equipment (communications, vehicles) to the fight and a level of operational planning experience few of our interagency and incident command partners possess.”
A native of Montclair, Virginia, and graduate of James Madison University, Gundersen has served as a Field Artillery officer and Logistics officer before becoming a Nuclear and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (FA 52) officer. He has deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.
“Exercises like Prominent Hunt deter threats to the U.S. homeland and our allies by demonstrating to our adversaries that the U.S. government can respond, project and apply technical nuclear forensics capabilities to such an incident in an expeditious and effective manner,” said Gundersen. “The exercises send a clear message that the U.S. and its allies possess the intent, will and capability to be prepared to execute such missions in defense of our way of life.”
FBI Special Agent Bomb Technician Brian Barrow, the Weapons of Mass Destruction coordinator from FBI Jackson Office, said the exercise gave him the opportunity to work with military units and other national assets.
“Throughout the exercise, it was evident across all military, state and federal resources that this mission truly is a ‘one team, one fight’ mentality,” said Barrow. “The professionalism, teamwork and the ability to clearly communicate among each other was unparalleled.”
Barrow said the NTNF mission is designed to deter potential state and non-state actors from attempting a nuclear attack on the homeland.
“The mission of the NTNF, as well as other programs designated with preventing a nuclear attack on U.S. soil, is a zero-fail mission,” said Barrow.
Robert A. Eikhoff, the FBI Jackson Office Special Agent in Charge, said the exercise helped to keep the interagency National Technical Nuclear Forensics Task Force ready.
“Exercises like Prominent Hunt allow us to work together with our civilian and military partners across the U.S. government and to stay ready to conduct this important nuclear forensics mission,” said Eikhoff. “They also let our adversaries know that we have the capabilities to track them down and bring them to justice.”
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