The 2023 Biodefense Posture Review

Abstract: The Secretary of Defense directed a comprehensive, first-ever Biodefense Posture Review to ensure the Department is prepared to operate in a biological threat environment and to support the national biodefense enterprise, at home and abroad. The inaugural review synchronizes biodefense planning with the National Defense Strategy (NDS), the National Biodefense Strategy, and as appropriate, allies and partners, to support biodefense efforts in alignment with national goals and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic response. The NDS recognizes that expanding biological threats, enabled by advances in life sciences and biotechnology, are among the many growing threats to U.S. national security that the U.S. military must address. The BPR report outlines strategic guidance, findings, and reforms necessary to posture DoD to meet the present and future challenges posed by biological threats, whether those threats are naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate in origin.

Bio: Richard C. Johnson serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy (N-CWMD). In this role he supports the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy by developing strategies, informing policies, and conducting oversight of nuclear deterrence policy and arms control, as well as developing and overseeing the implementation of strategies and policies of all Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction policy issues, to include preventing the proliferation of WMD-related materials; the DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program; and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) defense. Prior to his appointment at the Department of Defense, Richard served as the senior director for fuel cycle and verification at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Richard previously served as the assistant coordinator and deputy lead coordinator (acting) for Iran Nuclear Implementation at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to working at the Department of State, Johnson was director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council in the Obama Administration.

Bio: Brandi C. Vann currently serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs. This position serves as the principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense on nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, chemical demilitarization, chemical and biological defense and treaty management. Immediately prior, Dr. Vann served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense (DASD/CBD). Dr. Vann has held multiple senior leadership positions in Federal government including Chief of Advanced and Emerging Threats at Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) where she received the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Meritorious Achievement Award for her management of an innovative program to detect contaminated battlefields. Prior to her joining the Department of Defense, she served as the Director of Laboratories for Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC) and a visiting scientist at the Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).