The Spanish Military NBC Defence School (EMDNBQ) Against the NBC Threat

Major Juan C. Irizar Sigüenza
Spanish Army
Chief of the Doctrine Section
Spanish Military NBC Defence School

The Spanish Army NBC Defence evolution has been carried out step by step, as in most NATO member states, in line with the increasing threat. In this evolution the Spanish Military NBC Defence School is developing a very important role.

The Spanish Military NBC Defence School (EMDNBQ) is in the surroundings of Madrid, in Hoyo de Manzanares village, within the Army Engineer School facilities.

The EMDNBQ fulfils a double mission; first in the framework of the Teaching and Training area for the Officers and NCO’s, not only in regard to NBC but also in regard to the Army relationship with Environment Protection; on the other hand and within the Army Doctrine and Training Command, the Doctrine Sections are responsible for drafting the NBC national military publications and responsible for the ratification and staffing process of the NATO, UE and FINABEL NBC publications and documents.

To carry out this double mission, the Spanish Military NBC Defence School is divided into different departments (Nuclear, Chemical and Biological) which provide the NBC and Environmental courses to the Officers and NCO’s of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and Civil Guard.

The specialist NBC Officers and NCO Course for Army, Navy, Air Force, Civil Guard and National Police is a correspondence and residential course, theoretical and practical, whose aim is to qualify students to carry out NBC defence responsibilities. The Correspondence phase lasts 15 weeks and the Residential phase lasts 9 weeks. In this last phase only those applicants who pass the exam on the varying subjects of the correspondence phase will attend.

In addition, in September 2004 the Spanish Military NBC Defence School provided the First Assistance and Protection Course for Latin American and Caribbean States Parties in the OPCW framework under the article 10. This Article embraces the coordination among States Parties dealing with protection against chemical weapons, including, inter alia, the following: detection, equipment and alarm systems; protective equipment; decontamination equipment and decontaminants; medical antidotes and treatments; and advice on any of these protective measures. Each State Party undertakes to facilitate, and shall have the right to participate in, the fullest exchange of equipment, material and scientific and technological information concerning means of protection against chemical weapons.

The EMDNBQ Doctrine sections are composed by three different domains as follows:

• Material/Organization and Doctrine Section

• Research and Analyses Section and the

• Training and Evaluation Section.

The Material/Organization and Doctrine Section, as well as the Research and Analyses and Training and Evaluation Sections, are becoming more and more involved in the different international NBC Defence national and international communities.

All of the procedures and doctrine developed by the Doctrine section allow the NBC units to cooperate with civilian authorities and other national organisms such as civil and environmental protection. In this context we considered the military employment capabilities in support of Civilian Protection against any possible NBC threat.

The globalisation of communications and the international market make it possible for different countries and organizations to get the technology and material needed to manufacture NBC weapons. These globalization improvements have made it easier for all of the public services for society but on the other hand, the terrorists have taken profit of them.

Spain, like most countries, has been reacting to the lastest events, primarily in the EEUU and of course to those which occurred in Madrid on 11 March (11-M) 2004. On 11-M international terrorism globalised their attacks through the connections of Islamic Terrorism assisted by delinquents fond of drugs and the weapons black market.

The link among the different Terrorist groups make easier their “modus operandi” because they combined their ways of employment; some provided information, others provided explosives or weapons and other provided the kamikazes. Terrorists could be either kamikazees or those who do not want to risk their lifes because of the cause.

One way to attack without risking the terrorist’ life would be to combine different procedures using either improvised or manufactured explosives with any NBC agent that would then become even more dangerous that any other terrorist attack. For that reason the EMDNBQ is working together with the Spanish International Demining Centre (CID) in order to develop different scenarios and needed procedures to face against any NBC/EOD threat.

The international community and Spain have reacted against this asymmetric enemy and in the framework of the Prague Summit held in November 2002 and in the 2003 Spanish Strategic Defence Review which shows the Security and Army Forces role for the 2015-2020 period and in which NBC aspects are mentioned several times.

In addition to the EMDNBQ the Spanish Army has different NBC Units which carry out required capabilities. The biggest unit is the NBC Defence Battalion of the Manoeuvre Force in Valencia, which will become an NBC Defence Regiment in the near future. This Regiment will be manned as follows:

• 1 staff Company

• 1 NBC reconnaissance Company

• 2 decontamination companies (one medium and one light, depending on where employed within the AOR)

This NBC Defence Battalion has during 2005 a double challenge:

Transformation into a Regiment level unit to have more NBC Reconnaissance capability with wheeled vehicles VAMTAC, which are able to support in NBC reconnaissance to the light units. On the other hand this unit must be able to support mechanised and armoured units with the VRAC armoured NBC reconnaissance vehicle, whose manufacture programme will be explained later.

In addition to this transformation, this NBC unit is leading the build up of the NRF 5 CBRN NBC Defence Multinational Battalion, which will be ready for the second semester 2005. In the Prague initiatives we find the Prototype Deployable NBC Analytical Laboratory and the Prototype NBC Event Response Team. Both points are embraced in the NATO CBRN Multinational Battalion because these elements are key capabilities of this unit. In fact the NBC Event Response Team has been named as the Joint Assessment Team.

The Spanish Military NBC Defence School has been cooperating with the Spanish NBC Battalion. With Spain as the lead nation, the Battalion will be in charge of manning the Headquarters (including the Medical Cell and liaison elements), the Support Company and the Multifunctional NBC Response Company (including water purification and SIBCRA team). Now Spain is in negotiation with all of the other nations to achieve manning for the rest of the units (Decontamination Company, Nuclear and Chemical Reconnaissance Platoon) and last but not least, the Biological Reconnaissance Platoon.

In order to well achieve both challenges, Spain has been improving their NBC material and equipment, mainly in relation with NBC reconnaissance missions. In this line the EMDNBQ has been working during these past few years in close co-ordination with a Spanish firm responsible for the programme of manufacturing the NBC Defence Vehicle VRAC. The VRAC is based on a retrofitted BMR (Combat Wheeled Vehicle). The Vehicle is designed to carry out reconnaissance actions on an extreme NBC contaminated environment while keeping the advantages of the original BMR vehicle (infantry fighting vehicle).

Today this vehicle is in the NBC Defence Battalion as a key material asset for carrying out reconnaissance specific missions. This VRAC is actually a sophisticated laboratory with the following capabilities.

• Radiation Detection, Warning and Monitoring

• Punctual and Stand-off Chemical Detection, Warning and Identification

• Biological Identification

• Sampling

• Zone Marking

• Decontamination

• NBC Protection

• Positioning and Navigation System

• Weather station

In regards to civilian protection, in Spain as in most NATO countries, there is a National Conduction Crisis System containing a National Emergency Civilian Committee. This Committee has a Sub-Committee which is responsible for updating the human, material, technologic and infrastructure resources catalogue needed for specific plans that could affect possible Army Forces support.

The 11-March (11-M) Madrid attacks brought about needed system cooperation for security measures among different organisms such as the Army Forces. For that reason the Army initiated protection missions in key points of Madrid.

An information exchange system concerning the weapons and explosives black market was formed among different units of the Guardia Civil with special attention to the NBC weapons.

In the 11-M attacks we had mass terrorism, an intelligent and calculated terrorism. The selection of the date, the 11 of March, exactly 911 days after the 11 S: 911 like 9-11; 911, which means, nine eleven; besides having selected the date in a key period for the Spain´s future.

Fortunately, recognizing that terrorism has been globalised, Europe decided to both activate the EUROPOL anti-terrorism cells, where all police information of different member states is recorded, and Eurojust, the coordination net of magistrates who have to deal with crimes’ investigations.

Among other actions were studied new measures like “the biometrics data in ID’s and passports”.

It is not possible, until an event such as this happens, to be sure how the real situation will develop and what will be the civilian protection reaction and requirements. The Civilian protection doctrine states in the 2/1985 law that “Civilian protection is a public service in whose organization, procedures and conduction will take part the different administrations as well as the citizens with the compliance of the different duties and volunteer collaboration.”

Although this second reason is not as doctrinal as the first one, if something has not been foreseen we must be able to successfully improvise in a crisis situation. We know perfectly that the Civil Protection principles (Planification, Prevention, Intervention and Recovering) will have a positive impact in saving lifes.

The Government activated for the first time the emergency plan for disasters like this one and the “Comunidad de Madrid” coordinated the actions of more than 100,000 persons in the first few hours. The 11 of March activated the Level III “Platercam” in Madrid. This involved the Government taking control of a big disaster.

A key point was to have available one well equipped centre, the 112 emergency centre. In this centre the most urgent and important requirements were decided, such as the distribution of effectives and their coordination in different attack scenarios. Telephone numbers and more than 60 operators were organized for the Red Cross to inform the population. In the first 24 hours the operators handled more than 21,000 calls, and more than 6,300 calls were attended to by volunteer psychologists. The average waiting time for each call was around 22 seconds. We found that it was very useful to put the victim names in a 112 website in order to allow the people to make a quick consultation.

Last but not least we should note with pride the big job that thousands of citizens and organizations, who volunteered their services during this critical perioid, were able to accomplish. From the taxi drivers who drove victims and parents to the different destinations without fee; and some hotels which offered their rooms to book them. In addition it was necessary to have a big place to attend to the families and at the same time to allow the forensics to make their job with the same highest quality as in the more appropriate sites. The Madrid trade fair building, IFEMA, was chosen. To perform the autopsies more that 83 forensics and 15 assistants from the “Comunidad de Madrid” reached the site.

In the 112 the new crisis office was organized. This was composed of key responsible persons from all emergency services, i.e., Samur-Civil Protection (460 specialists technicians: 49 doctors, 38 nurses, 100 psychologists, 170 drivers, 220 volunteers, one helicopter, 18 mobile UVI’s and 110 ambulances), firemen (250 firemen and 38 vehicles were mobilized to rescue the victims from the trains), National Police, Guardia Civil, Red Cross, Local Police (2.500 policemen), Madrid Health Service (48 ambulances with 96 persons) and 190 employees from the Local Social Services.

After the 11-M attack the fight was conducted on different fronts: an increase in police operations and reinforcement of security forces manning (mainly to increase information skills); new strategies in international cooperation against this type of crime, and more participation of democratic parties in counter-terrorist meetings.

As it has been written in this article, the Spanish Military NBC Defence School is not only involved but also it is in the lead of the NBC Defence in Spain where the NBC threat is considered not as a question of possibility but as a real national concern.

* www.belt.es/noticias/2004 Belt Iberica ( Analistas de Prevención y Protección