The Defense Department’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO CBRND) has streamlined its organization to be more efficient, and better align investments to meet current and future warfighter needs.
Under the new structure, the JPEO CBRND has trimmed its Joint Project Managers (JPM) to three areas–CBRN Protection, CBRN Sensors and CBRN Medical–from five previously.
The prior JPM structure included NBC Contamination Avoidance, Information Systems, Protection, Medical Countermeasures Systems, and Guardian. Guardian and NBC Contamination Avoidance were consolidated into Sensors.
The JPMs oversee acquisition programs and the development of CBRBD capabilities for the joint services.
The restructuring includes four Joint Project Leads (JPLs) that are focused on CBRN Special Operations Forces, Information Management and Information Technology, Portfolio Resources, and Enabling Biotechnologies. The JPLs will also support portfolios across the JPEO.
“Restructuring under a portfolio-based construct allows us to be more flexible in aligning investments to goals and priorities, and balancing risk against performance in order to enable mission success,” Douglas Bryce, executive officer of JPEO CBRND, said in a statement. “The future of defense acquisition is fast and agile, and we will continue to work closely with our partners and end users every step of the way to deliver capabilities faster and at the right cost.”
Scott Paris leads JPM CBRN Protection, which will work with the JPL for Special Operations Forces on the next-generation protective ensemble to be less burdensome to warfighters while enhancing protection against emerging threats. The JPM and JPL will also develop contamination mitigation technologies and systems, and protective coatings and barriers.
JPM Sensors, led by Col. Ryan Eckmeier, will focus on developing, acquiring and sustaining CBRN sensors, reconnaissance systems, mobile laboratory systems and obscuration capabilities for the Army. The JPM will work with the JPL Information Management/Information Technology on integrated early warning using the products in their portfolio, including robotics and autonomous systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence to establish situational awareness of CBRN threats.
JPM Medical is led by Christopher Seacord and is focused on developing and acquiring medical solutions against CBRN threats. The JPM will coordinate with the JPL Enabling Biotechnologies on new and improved medical countermeasures to treat threats, rapid medical countermeasure responses, genomic sequencing and the capability to diagnose CBRN threats before symptoms appear.