The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is an agency within the United States Department of Defense and is the official Combat Support Agency for countering weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives). DTRA's main functions are threat reduction, threat control, combat support, and technology development. The agency is headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. DTRA employs 2,000 civilian and military personnel at more than 14 locations around the world, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Ukraine.
DTRA was established in 1998 by consolidating several DoD organizations, including the Defense Special Weapons Agency (successor to the Defense Nuclear Agency) and the On-Site Inspection Agency as a result of the 1997 Defense Reform Initiative.
In 2005, the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) made the decision to designate the Commander, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) as the lead Combatant Command (COCOM) for the integration and synchronization of DoD’s Combating WMD (CWMD) efforts in support of U.S. government objectives. To fill this requirement, the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC-WMD) was collocated with DTRA.
Annual published budgetary figures are $346MM (FY 2008), $354MM (FY 2009), and $385 (est. for FY 2010).
DTRA's vision is "to make the world safer by reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction."
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