DTRA/SCC-WMD serves as the muscle for Global Proliferation Security Initiative

Photo By Ann Fox | The Tunisian boarding team prepares to enter and search difficult to reach areas of the target vessel transporting simulated WMD dual use materials.  

WARSAW, POLAND

07.22.2013

Story by Anne Marek 

Defense Threat Reduction Agency

WARSAW, Poland - The U.S., Poland, and 70 other partner nations gathered in Warsaw this summer to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), underscoring the critical role that the PSI has played in countering the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) across the world.

Since 2006, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Center for Combating WMD (DTRA/SCC-WMD) PSI Support Cell has worked to facilitate cooperative international counterproliferation interdiction capabilities and provided subject matter expertise to support international PSI meetings and outreach.

The DTRA/SCC-WMD PSI Support Cell, located at Fort Belvoir, Va., routinely provides expert technical exercise development, planning and execution support for Department of Defense Combatant Command (CCMD) staffs and their respective exercise teams. The DTRA/SCC-WMD PSI Support Cell also manages an annual budget to support CCMD costs associated with WMD-interdiction exercises and PSI training activities.

“Shortly after taking this job, the Joint Staff Combating WMD Division chief told me that our PSI Support Cell was the U.S. government’s engine room for PSI,” said Paul Boren, the DTRA/SCC-WMD director for Building Partnership Capacity. “He said PSI would have died from lack of inertia if it wasn’t for the cell.”

“I believe the PSI Support Cell is the muscle mover that makes PSI happen,” said PSI Support Cell Branch Chief Cmdr. Dennis Turcotte. “We work with numerous interagency partners to facilitate these exercises and familiarize regional participants with international control regimes and agreements applicable to counterproliferation interdiction.”

U.S. participation in PSI partner nation exercises ranges from simple observation to providing supporting ships, aircraft, and personnel in support of multinational exercise participants and forces.

It was this type of mutual cooperation that helped prepare the government of Panama to seize cargo from a North Korean ship passing through its waterway after discovering that the vessel was in breach of United Nations Security Council Resolutions prohibiting weapons related shipments by North Korea.

“Panama is a PSI endorsing nation and we’ve participated with them in PSI exercises since 2006,” said Turcotte. “We’ve worked hard to support Panama when it comes to interdicting WMD and I believe that our support helped establish a more coordinated and effective basis to stop the ship that was ultimately discovered to be carrying military cargo from Cuba.”

There are challenges that remain for PSI, ranging from post-interdiction actions like disposition issues, to shrinking budgets around the world, to the concerns associated with transshipment, to the challenges of reaching out to industry and communicating what PSI is and what it is not.

Going forward, PSI endorsing states aim to take specific, concrete steps to further the initiative including; deterring proliferators through more regular and robust PSI exercises; promoting legally binding international treaties to criminalize international WMD-related trafficking by commercial ships and aircraft; sharing expertise and resources to build critical interdiction capabilities and practices; and expanding the influence of the PSI globally through outreach to new states and the public.

“Every day, the DTRA/SCC-WMD PSI Support Cell works to ensure that scenarios are in place to reach out to all the key players, secure necessary assets, support the interdictions and run the live exercises,” said Director Operations, Exercise and Readiness Directorate J3/7 Ronnie Faircloth. “Moving forward, we need to expand our support to a broader range of PSI endorsers, widen our outreach to potential partners, and continue working to keep pace with the dynamic and evolving proliferation threats of the 21st century.”

• Date Taken: 07.22.2013
• Date Posted: 07.26.2013 12:02
• Story ID: 110876
• Location: WARSAW, PL