FM-3-81 Maneuver Enhancement Brigade Download
Page 47 of 188
Organic and Task-Organized Structure 09 November 2021 FM 3-81 2-21 CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, RADIOLOGICAL, AND NUCLEAR 2-31. CBRN elements, battalion and below, are task-organized to the MEB to conduct CBRN operations based on the tactical situation. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear operations include the employment of capabilities that assess, protect against, and mitigate the entire range of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents to enable freedom of action (FM 3-11). CBRN capabilities span across the range of military operations by assessing CBRN threats and hazards, providing protection against CBRN hazards, mitigating CBRN incidents, and providing hazard awareness and understanding. The CBRN functions of assess, protect, and mitigate share a common fundamental purpose that fits within the protection warfighting function to achieve or contribute to national objectives. Assess. Through information collection and dissemination, effective warning and reporting, modeling, and hazard awareness and understanding, CBRN and select medical staffs and units possess the ability to estimate the potential for (or the existence of) CBRN threats and hazards. Assessing hazards allows proactive decision making and encompasses all of the capabilities to evaluate the potential for CBRN threats and hazards in the operational environment, detect and model CBRN hazards, and determine the characteristics and parameters of hazards throughout the operational environment that bear on operational and tactical decisions. Protect. CBRN and medical staffs and units provide the Army capabilities for protection against CBRN incidents. Protection is the preservation of the effectiveness and survivability of mission- related military and nonmilitary personnel, equipment, facilities, information, and infrastructure deployed or located within or outside the boundaries of a given operational area (JP 3-0). It encompasses the execution of physical defenses to negate the effects of CBRN hazards on personnel and material. Protection conserves the force by providing individual and collective protection postures and capabilities. Protecting the force from CBRN incidents includes hardening systems and facilities, preventing or reducing individual and collective exposures, or applying medical prophylaxes through FHP. Mitigate. CBRN units and medical staffs provide the Army the ability to mitigate CBRN incidents by responding with the personnel, subject matter expertise, medical response/treatment, and equipment to reduce the impact of, or neutralize, the hazard. Contamination mitigation is described as the planning and actions taken to prepare for, respond to, and recover from contamination associated with all chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats and hazards to continue military operations (JP 3-11). The mitigate function includes capabilities to negate hazards, such as the decontamination task. 2-32. Table 2-3, page 2-22, provides an overview of CBRN units, planning requirements, and capabilities at the battalion level and below that may be task-organized to the MEB. For additional information on CBRN operations, see FM 3-11.