In this reporting period, the National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI) and the University of Nebraska System (NU) collaborated with partners from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Government to convene broad expertise and knowledge for a deeper understanding of impending key national security challenges and potential solutions. Engaging in and facilitating interdisciplinary, interagency teams allowed NSRI to hone in on priorities, determine forward actions and integrate resources across its mission space.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semiautonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, maintains and enhances the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile while working to reduce global danger from weapons of mass destruction.
A principal partner of U.S. Strategic Command, (USSTRATCOM), NNSA sought out the command’s DOD-designated University Affiliated Research Center, NSRI, awarding a $25 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract in 2021. Within this reporting period, NSRI delivered an elucidating analytical effort to the customer on historic approaches to warhead design among the U.S., Russia and China and executed an initial round of strategic escalation wargames for NNSA leaders at the agency’s headquarters.
NSRI’s warhead design study and limited nuclear conflict wargame provide strategic support to mission-oriented educational objectives and future NNSA strategic decisions regarding nuclear weapons policy and acquisition, important particularly as the U.S. faces an emerging requirement to build out a suitable theater nuclear force. These efforts will continue as NSRI upgrades the wargame software and prepares to execute several wargames in 2024 and 2025.
NU and NSRI scientists participated in multiple conferences and symposia across several disciplines for drug discovery and development. In particular, the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) provides an opportunity to engage government, academia and industry. The DOD’s foremost scientific meeting, MHSRS focuses on the unique medical needs of the warfighter, drawing nearly 4,000 attendees and providing a venue for sharing new scientific knowledge from militaryunique research and development.
NSRI and NU presented and exhibited at the event in 2023. Presentations included but were not limited to: Isolation System for Treatment and Agile Response for High-Risk Infections (ISTARI): New Concepts for Continuous Patient Isolation and Care; REMIS: Rapid Energetic Medical Instrument Sterilization; and Advancement in Forward Surgical Care in Times of Need.
Through this highly collaborative annual event, NSRI and NU exchange research and healthcare initiatives with hundreds of industry-leading military providers with deployment experience, research and academic scientists, international partners and industry. In total, more than 100 direct contacts were collected, with several engaging in follow up collaborations.
NSRI launched a strategic partnership with Lincoln Laboratory, the Federally Funded Research and Development Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to create a student research program that aims to develop innovative solutions to detect and neutralize emerging biological threats. Funded by a DOD agency, the multi-year program addresses basic research. It is currently focused on agriculture security and global health issues.
Twelve MIT mechanical engineering students produced and validated a gas gradient manifold prototype and a dropletdispensing manifold that has the potential to generate arbitrary pH gradients in industry-standard 96-well plates used for biomedical research. These devices will greatly simplify and accelerate the of complex mixtures of organisms, allowing the end user to dial in the optimal environmental parameters without the need for expensive, bulky hardware.
Before the February 2024 NBA All-Star game in Indianapolis, Indiana, NSRI’s field operations and training team facilitated a full-scale, multi-device biological and explosive threat response exercise for the U.S. National Guard 53rd Civil Support Team (CST) and response partners.
The simulation leveraged NSRI’s subject matter knowledge and experience to coordinate multiple agencies, evaluate individual and team responses and provide insight to prepare responders for major real-life events. Participants included a bomb squad, K-9 unit and Pacers team staff and security. The FBI provided command and control. The team simulated the intensity and chaos of a real multi-device threat to effectively develop participants’ skills, hone field analysis capabilities and evaluate protocols, devices and interagency communications.
NSRI full-scale response exercises provide unique scenarios where interagency teams can fine-tune operations and continue improving tactical responses to national security level events.
The DOD invited NSRI scientists focused on biological defense to present their perspectives across threat detection, countermeasure development and environment surveillance at several events and forums.
Panel presentations and a poster at the Chemical & Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference, December 2022, in San Francisco, California, showcased NSRI work for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, including rapidly dissolvable filters for biological aerosol sample collection and a remote sensing system to detect biological threats.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security requested NSRI scientists to virtually moderate and participate in panel discussions surrounding hazard-related testing for the Built Environment Surveillance Testbed–Biological Hazards Summit in June 2023.
At the Joint Civil & DOD CBRN Symposium, March 2024, in Washington, D.C., NSRI Associate Executive Director Marty Sikes moderated a panel highlighting challenges and strengthening preparedness for CBRN threats. The panel explored employing artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), unmanned platforms and microsensors, which have been a top priority to modernize and enhance CBRN detection and response capabilities.
With colleagues throughout the U.S. and across rapidly evolving defense disciplines, NSRI scientists are contributing greater national capacity to investigate vulnerabilities, identify threats and mitigate current and future risks.
As new chemical and biological technologies change the threat landscape, near-peer adversaries’ escalation tactics and related considerations must be studied to define evolved deterrence methodologies and weapons employment doctrine.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense asked NSRI to host and facilitate a series of workshops in June of 2023 to examine changes in the threat landscape and explore methods of addressing them.
Throughout the series of “Future Operating Environment” workshops, DOD, USSTRATCOM and NU leaders and researchers scrutinized strategic perspectives on synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and more.
The highly collaborative workshop discussions among technicians and thought leaders from academia, the military and government provided an investigation of key drivers and inhibitors of near-peer chemical and biological weapons employment, including assessing historical and contemporary views.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Omaha Field Office and the Nebraska Farm Bureau hosted an Agriculture Threats Symposium at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska, in June 2023, to provide information to farmers and ranchers about threats to the agriculture sector in the Upper Midwest and to offer resources and guidance to prevent, detect and mitigate these threats.
Dr. Neal Woollen, NSRI associate executive director, and NSRI Fellow Dr. Benny Mote, UNL associate professor of animal science, presented a talk entitled, “Resiliency Challenges with High Consequence Pathogen Outbreaks.”
The event started a critical conversation among the private sector, government, law enforcement and academia about how to protect agriculture from threats.
