To address the threat of weapons of mass destruction, the Pacific Command will host a first-ever proliferation security initiative next week with Asia-Pacific partners. The exercise, Fortune Guard 2014, will run from Monday to Aug. 7 in Honolulu.
"The exercise is designed to address the full range of weapons of mass destruction interdiction-related skill sets," including rapid decision-making and operational tactics, the command said in a statement. There will be a tabletop exercise, port exercise and live exercise at sea, said the command, which is based at Camp Smith.
Fortune Guard 2014 will be the first in a series of annual WMD proliferation exercises hosted on a rotating basis by six regional partners in the following order: United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
The Hawaii gathering will include an exercise in which South Korean and Japanese special-operations teams board and search a ship at sea containing a simulated weapon of mass destruction.
The Pentagon also has invited Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vanuatu and Vietnam to participate.
During the Cold War most of the WMD concern centered on nation states.
"We were worried about huge stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological materials," Kenneth A. Myers III, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, told a House Armed Services subcommittee in April.
Those stockpiles are still a concern, but "the more difficult area for us to track and address is terrorist acquisition of WMD materials that can be modified, grown or enhanced for use as a weapon," Myers said.
In a 2012 report the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the Asia-Pacific region epitomizes the type of proliferation challenges the international community has to grapple with in the 21st century.
"Globalization has turned the region into one of the most important trade hubs, and the Asia-Pacific is home to the world’s leading dual-use companies," the endowment said.
Broad trade and technology use in everyday life results in "constant flows of proliferation-sensitive items across borders," according to Carnegie. "And this poses a real danger."
The gradual acquisition of components and technology can enable a state or terrorist group to start a WMD program, the organization said.
In 2006 federal, state and city agencies simulated a half-kiloton nuclear blast from a device that arrived in a shipping container and "detonated" at Pier 1 in Honolulu Harbor.
Such a blast would result in 200 immediate fatalities, 3,000 to 8,000 casualties with injuries or radiation, and possibly 4,000 long-term fatalities, the exercise predicted.
