Capability Program Executive Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (CPE CBRND)
CPE CBRND buys CBRN defense for the entire joint force, not just the Army. Masks, suits, decontamination, detectors, medical countermeasures, and the biotechnology behind them. The Army is the executive agent; the customer is every service plus first responders. It is the former Joint Program Executive Office for CBRN Defense, redesignated under the Army acquisition reform.
| Type | Capability Program Executive (CPE); joint program executive office under the Chemical_and_Biological_Defense_Program |
| Headquarters | Aberdeen_Proving_Ground, MD, with elements at Fort_Detrick, MD and elsewhere |
| Capability Program Executive | Nicole_Kilgore |
| Interim Deputy CPE | Wyatt_Ulrich |
| Chief of Staff | Gordon_Graham |
| Subordinate to | PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN (Fort_Leonard_Wood, MO) for portfolio direction; ASAALT for acquisition authority |
| Structure | Four Joint Project Managers and two Joint Project Leads |
Mission
Provide integrated, layered CBRN defense capability to the joint force across warfighting functions and combined joint all-domain operations. The office leads, manages, and directs acquisition and fielding of CBRN sensors, protective equipment, medical countermeasures, information management systems, defense-enabling biotechnologies, and specialized equipment for special operations forces.
It is a component of the DoD Chemical_and_Biological_Defense_Program, which is the funding and oversight structure that makes this office joint rather than Army.
No Title 10 section establishes this office by name. Army capability program executives are designated by the Army Acquisition Executive, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology at 10 U.S.C. § 7016(b)(5)(A), acting under the Secretary of the Army’s authority to organize the Department of the Army at 10 U.S.C. § 7013(b)(2), and the portfolio acquisition executive role such an office performs is defined at 10 U.S.C. § 1732, added by Pub. L. 119-60 in December 2025, as explained at Title_10_Structure.
Subordinate Organizations
Joint Project Managers
- JPM_CBRN_Protection — individual and collective protection, masks and suits, decontamination and contamination mitigation. Led by Steven_Batts
- JPM_CBRN_Medical — medical countermeasures and diagnostics against CBRN threats. Led by John_Nuckols (COL)
- JPM_CBRN_Integrated_Early_Warning — detection, identification, and integrated early warning systems, and the information management layer. Led by Timothy_Tharp
- JPM_CBRN_Special_Operations_Forces — SOF-peculiar CBRN equipment, in support of USSOCOM. Led by Deborah_Olson
Joint Project Leads
- JPL_CBRN_Enabling_Technologies — enabling biotechnologies: broad-spectrum countermeasures, rapid medical countermeasure response, genomic sequencing, pre-symptomatic diagnosis. Led by Bruce_Goodwin
- JPL_CBRN_Integration — portfolio-wide integration across the enterprise
Program Element families
Most CBRN defense money does not sit in Army program elements. It runs through the Defense-Wide Chemical_and_Biological_Defense_Program appropriations, which is why the funding for this office is harder to trace in Army budget books than for its sibling CPEs. Army-side lines that touch the mission:
- 0605038A Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense
- 0605036A and 0607101A Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 0602386A, 0603386A, 0604386A Biotechnology for Materials
For the Defense-Wide side see Appropriations and the CBDP lines under Program Elements. Chemical demilitarization is a separate matter handled by PEO_ACWA under 0708081D and 0708083D.
Why it matters
The customer set is the widest of any CPE. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and civilian first responders. A qualified detector or protective garment sells across all of them under one program office relationship.
Biotechnology is the growth area and it is genuinely open to commercial firms. JPL CBRN Enabling Technologies funds genomic sequencing, rapid medical countermeasure platforms, and pre-symptomatic diagnostics. Biotech companies with no defense history have won work here, often through OTAs and consortium vehicles.
Medical countermeasures buy differently from equipment. Vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics run through FDA regulatory pathways alongside the acquisition process, with BARDA and NIH as adjacent funders. This is the one CPE where the regulatory strategy matters as much as the acquisition strategy.
Protection is a steady, unglamorous, competitive market. Masks, filters, suits, gloves, boots, collective protection shelters, decontaminants. Recurring, replaceable, and driven by shelf-life turnover as much as by threat.
Fort Leonard Wood is now the requirements center of gravity. The parent PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN sits with the Maneuver_Support_Center_of_Excellence, which owns CBRN doctrine and requirements. That colocation is the point of the reform.
See Also
- PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN — parent portfolio
- CPE_Mission_Autonomy — sister CPE under the same PAE; unmanned CBRN reconnaissance is a shared interest
- PEO_ACWA — chemical weapons stockpile destruction, a separate mission
- Chemical_and_Biological_Defense_Program, Combating_Weapons_of_Mass_Destruction
- USSOCOM — customer for the SOF CBRN portfolio
- ASAALT, T2COM, Maneuver_Support_Center_of_Excellence
- Program Elements, Appropriations, Defense_Acquisition_System