The Defense Department plans to stand up more National Guard-staffed civil support teams trained to assist local authorities in the event of a weapons of mass destruction attack on the American homeland, a senior DoD official said Jan. 16.
There are currently 32 WMD civil support teams with the skills and equipment to detect chemical, biological, nuclear and explosive agents in support of emergency first responders in event of an attack, noted Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.