| The United States (U.S.) response preparedness must be significantly improved in order to successfully counter a BW threat. The National Intelligence Council estimates that terrorists will use weapons of mass destruction sometime within the next ten years. This may include biological warfare (BW) as a feasible method to achieve mass casualties. A threat that the U.S. faces is a BW attack on coastal or inland river waterway ports by well-funded, state-sponsored bioterrorist groups. Such groups may use a seafaring ship equipped to produce and deploy BW agents. This seafaring platform for conducting such attacks is referred to as a Mobile Maritime Biological Warfare Production Facility (MMBWPF).;U.S. coastal regions are highly vulnerable to a BW attack, which is exasperated by a lack of preparedness protocols or action from primary port security agencies. This renders the research presented in this dissertation critical. For example, the MMBWPF could execute single or multiple uninterrupted BW attacks on U.S. ports, coastal areas, inland river waterways, or populaces. This research argues that it is feasible for a well-funded terrorists group, with sufficient knowledge or support from a state sponsor of terrorism, to obtain, design, equip, develop, and deploy a MMBWPF capability. Finally, the MMBWPF platform is not limited to just a U.S. threat; it could hold any nation's political, economic, and populace hostage. Therefore, a MMBWPF platform could capably attack a broad array of U.S. or global targets to further any political, social, or religious objectives.;Planning or government agencies could derive concepts from this research to establish appropriate awareness, prevention, protection, and response architectures. Government planners for port security could use this data to create a holistic BW threat doctrine. Additionally, government planners for the National Response Plan (NRP) could use this data, along with existing data, to streamline NRP protocols. Combining existing and future doctrines and protective architectures could result in an efficient system.;Equally important, this research identifies disparities and attempts to address plausible solutions for NRP protocols, which are increasingly crucial in saving lives and mitigating the catastrophic effects of a BW attack. The argument proposed is that a logical BW threat-based approach be used in order to establish realistic requirements, along with the use of sensible metrics in order to measure their success. Additionally, the MMBWPF, NRP, and defined protocols are interchangeably linked; yet, they are stand-alone issues. Finally, the argument that both planning and NRP protocols are equally important in order to determine responsible prevention and response capabilities is presented. |
