DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY 

U NITED STATES OF A M ERIC A 

D

EFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AG ENC Y

DIRECTOR ’S 

STRATEGIC 

INTENT 

2022-2027 

REVISION 

FEBRUARY 2024 

UNCLASSIFIED 

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED. 

UNCLASSIFIED 
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

Director’s Foreword 

February 2024 

DTRA Team, 

Deter. Prevent. Prevail. These keywords express our 

strategic priorities to deter strategic attacks against 

the United States and our allies; prevent, reduce, 

and counter WMD and emerging threats; and 

prevail against WMD-armed adversaries in crisis and 

conflict. This document outlines my 2024 Initiatives 

and cross-agency efforts in support of our national 

and DoD security strategies to enhance efforts on 

critical activities and investments while adhering to 

our priorities, performing our core functions, and 

enabling efforts through our essential approaches. 

Over the next year, the agency will address identified gaps and augment our core 

functions through five cross-agency initiatives designed to spark an innovative and 

collective approach to tackle pressing global challenges. 

In light of the current security environment, our mission has never been more 

important. We remain united in the confidence that our work matters to our national 

security, to the well-being of our allies and partners around the world, and to the safety 

and security of families and loved ones here at home. 

Rebecca K.C. Hersman 

Director 
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UNCLASSIFIED

Introduction 

The United States faces a highly competitive security environment characterized by diverse and dynamic 

weapons of mass destruction (WMD) risks across multiple domains. Moreover, the complexity of statebased chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats is increasing, compounded by advanced 

and emerging technologies which can provide adversary WMD programs greater speed, lethality, flexibility, 

accessibility, and deniability. China and Russia seek to degrade established international norms while rapidly 

expanding and modernizing their nuclear forces, diversifying advanced conventional systems, and developing 

CBRN capabilities designed to exploit U.S. and allied vulnerabilities—including within the gray zone short of 

direct military conflict. 

While the threat posed by Russia is acute, China, through rapid strategic military expansion, pursuit of advanced 

technical capabilities, and an aggressive regional posture, is the pacing challenge. China will continue to use 

its asymmetric advantage and comparative freedom of maneuver in this operating environment to undertake 

activities they perceive to be difficult to attribute, low-risk, low-cost, and high-reward. Meeting these 

challenges requires a holistic response that includes integrated deterrence and a campaign-based approach 

focusing on countering China’s WMD activities. 

“The United States faces dynamic and evolving 

WMD threats. DTRA’s integrated, holistic approach 

addresses the reality of today’s threat environment 

while anticipating future emerging challenges.” 

-Director Rebecca Hersman 

As China continues to weaken the foundations of a stable and open international system, Iran and North Korea 

pursue advanced warfighting capabilities that undermine regional security and global stability in ways that 

pose considerable risk to U.S. strategy and priorities. Additionally, the potential for natural or accidental release 

of biological pathogens or chemical accidents contribute to an ever-evolving CBRN threat environment. 

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) provides unsurpassed counter WMD (CWMD) support to DoD, 

interagency and international partners, continuously adapting to evolving technical, operational, and 

geo-strategic demands that determine current and future requirements. Cross-agency integration, 

proactive posturing, and effective partnering within the framework of a campaign-based approach will 

enable DTRA to deliver solutions that build enduring advantages across the strategic deterrence and CWMD 

enterprises. The following guidance reiterates the enduring nature of our strategic priorities, core functions, 

and essential approaches, as well as the need to continue to lead with our values. Our five cross-cutting 

2024 Initiatives will focus on a renewed corporate mindset to address some of our most pressing organizational 

and institutional challenges. 
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

Strategic Priorities 

DTRA’s strategic priorities are aligned with the priorities of the National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Nuclear 

Posture Review, and other strategic guidance documents which direct DoD to meet our national security 

goals through integrated deterrence, campaigning, and building enduring advantages. DTRA enables the 

Department to shape the operating environment and reduce risk to national security objectives by providing 

technologies and integrated solutions for the most intractable WMD problems. DTRA supports whole-ofgovernment efforts to prevent the acquisition, proliferation, and use of WMD and associated materials and to 

confound the decision calculus of WMD-armed adversaries. 

As both a Defense Agency and Combat Support Agency, DTRA 

provides cross-cutting solutions to enable the DoD, the United 

States Government (USG), and international partners to: 

Today’ security environment requires that DTRA apply these strategic priorities in a campaign-based approach, 

focused on China as the pacing threat, followed by Russia as the acute threat, and Democratic People’s 

Republic of Korea and Iran as high-risk regional destabilizers that pose considerable dangers and a major 

risk to our national defense strategy priorities if unchecked. CBRN acquisition and use of WMD by non-state 

actors also remain a legitimate concern, but are secondary in priority with regard to the state-based threats 

described above. 
UNCLASSIFIED 5

DTRA Core Functions 

DTRA is committed to achieving concrete 

outcomes and strategic effects through its 

core functions. Directorates will implement 

improvements, refinements, and efficiencies to 

optimize execution in these critical mission areas. 
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

Ensure a reliable, resilient strategic deterrent through nuclear 

surety, mission assurance, and crisis response activities. 

Potential adversaries view nuclear weapons as a means to seek coercive advantage, challenge the United States in crisis 

and conflict, and potentially decouple the United States from its allies. DTRA supports the U.S. nuclear deterrent through 

nuclear readiness and modernization, mission assurance, force preparedness and response, and treaty verification. DTRA 

enhances nuclear force resilience, expands nuclear operations expertise, and improves its capacity to implement current 

and future verification regimes. In an evolving and complex geopolitical environment, the agency remains dedicated to 

maintaining a reliable strategic deterrent while increasing the resiliency of our Joint Force capabilities. DTRA leverages its 

considerable education, modeling, and assessment resources to ensure the Department’s success in this 

no-fail mission. 

Develop and deliver innovative capabilities to the warfighter across 

the threat spectrum. 

The agency remains a key developer of capabilities to counter WMD threats. DTRA’s portfolio contains critical technologies 

that enable the Joint Force to disrupt, defeat, disable, and dispose of WMD and enhance deterrence against their potential 

use. Capabilities developed by DTRA address our intelligence community’s hardest problem sets, Joint Forces readiness, 

and the inspection and detection mechanisms that underpin international stability. As the preeminent science and 

technology leader across the CWMD enterprise, DTRA must maintain its place at the leading edge of innovation. DTRA 

employs research and development tools and expertise to create novel CWMD solutions and proactively engages with 

partners to transition these capabilities to the operational force. Enhanced information technology, AI-enabled data 

retrieval and management, and advanced visualization and decision-support capabilities augment the agency’s enduring 

detection, protection, and WMD defeat efforts. 

Prevent, reduce, and eliminate CBRN threats through risk reduction, 

arms control, partner capacity building, and warfighter support. 

Cooperative threat reduction, treaty implementation and verification, and building partner capacity efforts, in 

collaboration with USG and international partners, improve DoD’s ability to interdict WMD proliferation, secure vulnerable 

WMD materials and promote and implement effective arms control. By combining innovative technology with sustained 

engagement and security cooperation initiatives, DTRA enhances U.S. and partner nation abilities to mitigate the dangers 

posed by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well as advance delivery systems and other enabling technologies. 

DTRA continues to shape growth and stabilization across Cooperative Threat Reduction programs with a focus on 

developing sustainable capacity-building efforts that reinforce networks with allies and partners. DTRA also supports 

warfighter requirements to deny and disrupt adversaries from acquiring WMD materiel and delivery systems. 
UNCLASSIFIED 7

Provide strategic and operational support through subject 

matter expertise, technical reachback, tailored analysis, and 

exercise support. 

DTRA provides a wide range of expert support across operational and scientific disciplines, technologies, and materials 

to address threats posed by WMD, associated delivery systems, and enabling technologies. DTRA supports the warfighter 

with tailored capabilities designed to enable operational CWMD missions. Agency subject matter experts, analysts, 

planners, and strategists examine the challenges of competition and conflict with WMD-capable adversaries and the 

means to overcome them. As part of the Defense Intelligence Enterprise, DTRA’s intelligence support activities advance 

analysis and information-sharing efforts through thoughtful collaboration with community partners. External research, 

table-top exercises, workshops, and other mechanisms help DTRA understand the future CBRN threat landscape to 

prepare for crisis or conflict related to WMD. DTRA’s forward presence among DoD Combatant Commands and other key 

organizations ensures the agency’s efforts are fully integrated across DoD and the broader USG. These efforts include a 

focus on exercise support tools, data visualization, and interactive platforms. 

Support the Joint Force with plans, concepts, exercises, and materiel 

solutions to address CBRN operational and strategic risks. 

Plans, concepts, and exercises enable DoD to prepare to deter and defeat WMD-armed adversaries. DTRA mitigates the 

risks and consequences of conflict by developing CWMD technical solutions, highlighting warfighting challenges and 

adversary vulnerabilities, and supporting DoD CWMD plans and exercises. DTRA provides the Joint Force, allies, and 

partners with unique insight into adversary WMD force posture, doctrine, and systems. In particular, DTRA examines how 

potential adversaries plan to employ and integrate WMD during conflict to inform concepts of operation and materiel 

solutions U.S. and allied forces need in a WMD battlespace. 

CORE

FUNCTIONS
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

CAMPAIGNING INTEGRATING 

DTRA will implement a campaigning 

approach to synchronize operations, 

activities, and investments against 

our most pressing challenges. In a 

resource-constrained environment, 

the range of activities and actions 

across DTRA’s core functions must 

be connected and coordinated to 

maximize impact. Conducting tradeoff analysis on an agency-wide basis 

allows the organization to prioritize 

resources that buy down risk. As the 

pacing challenge for the Department, 

China is the central focus of DTRA’s 

campaign efforts. DTRA’s campaigning 

approach will work in close concert with 

the Joint Force, orienting activities to 

support Combatant Command CWMD 

operational plans that offset China’s 

ability to develop advanced WMD and 

dual-use capabilities, coerce potential 

partners, and prepare for conflict in a 

WMD environment. Similar campaign 

approaches for Russia, North Korea and 

Iran will be developed over time. 

DTRA will reinforce a culture of integration 

across organizational and functional 

boundaries. In a joint, all-domain 

environment, most agency missions do not 

fit neatly in a single directorate or program. 

Information stove-pipes and operational 

silos impede our ability to address 

complex challenges. To execute DTRA’s 

mission, empowerment of the rich talent 

and expertise across the organization is 

key to collaboratively put the right tools, 

resources, and capabilities into the hands 

of decision -maker and operators. Agency 

elements will fulfill support requests in a 

coordinated and thorough manner in order 

to produce the best results. As appropriate, 

cross-organizational working groups will 

facilitate integrated approaches, taskorganized to our most pressing challenges. 

DTRA’s core functions contain many enduring tasks and respo

rapidly evolving technological and operational challenges. H

agency-wide capabilities, proactively engage emerging risks 

and dangerous security environment. These essential approa

APPROACHES
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UNCLASSIFIED

PARTNERING POSTURING 

DTRA’s enduring partnerships at the 

international level, as well as across the 

DoD and United States Government 

(USG), are among the Agency’s greatest 

strengths. DTRA must bolster and expand 

these relationships to better align with 

the whole-of-government activities 

targeting CWMD challenges. The Agency 

will ensure shared understanding of 

roles and capabilities among our diverse 

body of stakeholders. Our approach 

will also include renewed emphasis on 

collaboration and integration with allies 

and partners in ways that build enduring 

advantages for Department of Defense. 

Through continuous and proactive 

engagement, DTRA will help build the 

collaborative partnerships necessary to 

prevent and deter global WMD threats. 

DTRA must take an anticipatory 

approach to enhance readiness, 

responsiveness, and resiliency across 

the organization. DTRA must transition 

away from a primarily reactive posture 

to a more proactive one that enables 

the Agency to better anticipate and 

prioritize requirements. This includes 

positioning resources and personnel 

in a manner that maximizes their 

effectiveness while reducing risk 

to mission across the spectrum of 

conflict. DTRA will take a deliberate risk 

assessment approach in accordance 

with our Defense Agency and Combat 

Support Agency responsibilities. We 

will utilize planning and decisionsupport processes to determine 

appropriate steady-state and crisis 

postures and ensure seamless 

continuity of operations. It is also 

imperative that DTRA consider how to 

best manage and position low-density/ 

high-demand assets upon which the 

Department relies for CWMD actions. 

DTRA will rely on advanced analytics, 

knowledge and data management, 

and information-sharing technology 

to anticipate support requests and 

enhance Agency responsiveness. 

onsibilities as well as new efforts and initiatives to account for 

However, DTRA requires new approaches to better leverage 

 and challenges, and prioritize resources across a complex 

aches are: 
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED

 DIRECTOR’S 

INITIATIVES

DIRECTOR’S 

INITIATIVES 

DTRA’s core functions represent our 

enduring approach to deter, prevent, 

and prevail against WMD threats. Even 

as these essential activities continue, the 

agency must innovatively tackle new and 

pressing challenges. The following initiatives 

seek to elevate unique problem sets that 

require additional attention and focus from a 

strategic, agency-wide perspective. 

Over the next year, DTRA will address identified gaps 

and augment our core functions through the following 

five cross-agency initiatives designed to deliver expedited 

results by leveraging integrated, task-organized approaches 

to develop new capabilities and innovative solutions to these 

pressing problems. 

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) 2024 

Initiatives and cross-agency efforts for the next year 

will enhance focused efforts on critical activities 

and investments while adhering to our priorities, 

performing our core functions, and enabling 

efforts through our essential approaches. By 

continuing to align operations, activities, 

and investments (OAIs) across three broad 

areas – mission, people, and improving 

the agency – we will delineate 

between efforts that require further 

development, institutionalization, 

sustainment, or new ways to 

meet current and emerging 

challenges. In so doing, 

these updated initiatives 

allow senior leaders to 

identify critical areas of 

execution, resourcing, 

and organizational 

modifications 

for decision. 
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UNCLASSIFIED

1 Operationalize Campaign Approaches 

2 Modernize and Enhance Data Analytics 

and Dynamic Decision Support 

3 Strengthen Future Arms Control 

4 Build an Integrated and ForwardThinking Agency 

5 Advance the Workforce of the Future 

2024 INITIATIVES 
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Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

The National Defense Strategy calls on the Department of Defense to utilize campaigning 

approaches to set conditions and shape the environment so the U.S. can prevail in 

competition and conflict against our most formidable strategic challenges. DTRA will align 

programs, activities, and investments according to a campaign-based approach, focused 

on China as the pacing threat, Russia as the acute threat, and North Korea and Iran as highrisk regional destabilizers. DTRA’s wide range of global activities and actions across the five 

core functions must be connected and coordinated to maximize impact. DTRA’s campaign 

plans are living documents that must drive agency-wide activities and investments. 

As DTRA operationalizes and standardizes its campaign approach process, we will 

implement improvements, refinements, and efficiencies to optimize agency-wide activities 

and account for rapidly changing technical, operational, and geostrategic challenges 

throughout competition, crisis, and conflict. This initiative will sustain and institutionalize 

current cross-cutting efforts while innovating across the agency to identify and deliver 

new capabilities and solutions to emerging problems. 

Effective campaigning requires organizational and operational innovation to drive change 

across the agency. As part of this initiative to operationalize campaigning, DTRA will 

assess and restructure its forward footprint to meet the needs of our pacing challenges 

while tailoring expertise and allowing greater agility and responsiveness to Combatant 

Command needs. A signature part of this process is re-posturing the agency to better 

meet the pacing challenges posed by China. In particular, the agency will develop a 

deeper partnership and presence with Australia, focused on enhanced operational and 

exercise support, expanded research and development, technical information sharing, 

and coordinated regional partner engagements. In addition, the agency will continue to 

evaluate its forward posture to rebalance between embedded and reach-back capabilities 

and deepen its partnership with USSTRATCOM 

in light of growing nuclear risks from state 

actors. This evolution improves the efficiency 

and effectiveness of agency-wide capabilities 

and further enhances DTRA’s reach across 

the Indo-Pacific. In addition, DTRA will utilize 

matrixed campaign operational planning teams 

to drive functional effects against other strategic 

priorities that reveal, delay, degrade, or disrupt 

emerging chemical and biological weapons 

programs before any potential future use. These 

will include focused efforts on countering 

novel chemical and biological capabilities and 

improving hard target defeat capabilities aligned 

with our priority campaigning efforts. 

Military member briefs 

Brigadier Brett Chaloner 

(right), Commander of 

the Australian Army’s 

13th Brigade on the 

capabilities of a U.S. 

Army High Mobility 

Artillery Rocket System 

(HIMARS) launcher 

during an open day for 

13 Brigade members and 

guests at Irwin Barracks, 

Karrakatta, near Perth in 

Western Australia. 

Photo by: 

Sgt. Keaton Habeck, 

U.S. Army 

Operationalize Campaign Approaches 1 
13 

UNCLASSIFIED

Modernize and Enhance Data Analytics 

and Dynamic Decision Support 

Over the next year, DTRA will leverage its cross-agency capabilities to enhance modeling, 

simulation, visualization, and decision support – internal to the agency and external to 

partners and customers throughout phases of competition, crisis, and conflict. To produce 

influential information in the current national security environment, DTRA will develop 

integrated dynamic data visualization for its Combatant Command support, 24/7 reachback, and cross-agency operating picture in shareable, interoperable, transferable, flexible, 

and sustainable ways. While modernizing our support capabilities, we will further enhance 

our posture for the future by advancing our facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs 

of a modern, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled digital work environment. This includes 

establishing effective development, security, and operations platforms for internal and 

external development to produce, field, and sustain software tools at digital-age speeds. In 

addition, we must develop data analytics and high-performance computing infrastructure 

that delivers multi-level security decision-making information on operationally informed 

timelines. These efforts must also align with an effective data strategy that provides 

enduring capabilities. Achieving information superiority requires an integrated, whole-ofagency approach that addresses the reality of today’s threat environment while anticipating 

future emerging threats. 

DTRA must enhance its capabilities for success in a data-driven future. DTRA will establish 

and resource a Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, leading us toward a more agile, 

innovative, and data-centric organization. The breadth to which quality data and responsible 

AI will impact each Directorate, team, and individuals in performing their duties cannot 

be overstated. All leaders and executors alike must apply a collaborative, data-driven lens 

across all mission and business operations in the digital era. As an agency, we must increase 

our data acumen to effectively govern, manage, employ, analyze, and present data to inform 

DTRA and our partner’s decisions. In addition, 

by breaking down silos and facilitating crossfunctional collaboration, DTRA seeks to unlock the 

full potential of our data, creating a catalyst for 

informed decision-making and enhanced mission 

effectiveness and efficiency. 

2 

U.S. Cyber Command 

members work in the 

Integrated Cyber Center, 

Joint Operations Center 

at Fort George G. 

Meade, Maryland. 

Photo by: 

 Josef Cole, 

U.S. Cyber Command 
14 

Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

DTRA launched the Over-the-Horizon Arms Control (OTHAC) Initiative in 2022 to envision 

long-term future arms control, with a focus on three to fifteen years into the future. The 

goals of the OTHAC Initiative include identifying risk reduction opportunities, confidencebuilding measures, and developing innovative technical verification capabilities and 

operational concepts, as well as partnerships to realize these goals. Over the last year, 

existing arms control agreements, particularly the New START and Conventional Armed 

Forces in Europe treaties, have faced growing challenges. And yet, cooperative, voluntary, 

and transparent means to reduce threats to regional and global stability remain vital 

capabilities. Therefore, the agency will sustain treaty obligation capacity while accelerating 

its ability to anticipate and adapt for future arms control and risk reduction requirements. 

DTRA will identify options for investment in projects and facilities supporting robust 

technical, operational, and human capital solutions addressing future verification and 

risk-reduction challenges and explore new lines of effort in bio-monitoring, nuclear 

and dual-capable systems, advanced conventional weapons, and space-related 

systems. DTRA will train a qualified and adaptable cadre of inspectors, linguists, and related 

specialists to support future arms control requirements by realigning human and financial 

resources and emphasizing collaboration with U.S. and international partners. Essential 

collaborations with the National Nuclear Security Administration, the White House Office of 

Science and Technology Policy, and the U.S. Department of State will grow in importance 

and must be institutionalized into persisting relationships. We will also work with allies, 

partner nations, and international organizations to develop new tools and concepts, 

including an Arms Control Center of Excellence, certification training and exercises for 

inspection activities, and a pilot project designed to identify and evaluate verification 

requirements and standards for conventional capabilities that could be the subject of 

futurearms control agreements. As this 

initiative transitions into an enduring 

agency capability, its commitment to 

addressing new challenges, such as the 

ongoing deterioration of Cold War and 

post-Cold War arms control frameworks, 

remains unwavering. 

DTRA Director Rebecca 

Hersman traveled 

to the Republic of 

Kazakhstan for key 

leader engagements 

and site visits to 

commemorate 30 years 

of nonproliferation 

cooperation between the 

Agency and Kazakhstan. 

Photo by: 

 Andrea Chaney, 

DTRA Public Affairs 

Strengthen Future Arms Control 3 
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UNCLASSIFIED

Build an Integrated and ForwardThinking Agency 

Preparing for future global trends is a national security imperative requiring strategic 

foresight, particularly given current global instability. Shaping the future in the face of 

uncertainty is critical to this effort and requires unconventional thinking, allowing us 

to sense, shape, and readily adapt with flexibility. Based on the NSS and the NDS, DTRA 

must engage a whole-of-agency approach to validate assumptions, analyze drivers, and 

understand future uncertainties through an iterative process with constant re-evaluation 

by a diverse team of subject matter experts. Processes that foster faster, more corporatized 

decision-making and flexible management of resources will allow the agency to meet its 

mission even as threats grow and resources tighten. 

In DTRA’s continuing efforts to align investments and resources to strategic priorities, the 

agency is launching a Strategic Resource Board (SRB) to serve as a consistent senior leader 

forum for transparent, cross-cutting agency resourcing decisions. Central to this effort is 

developing a more dynamic and corporately organized resource management process. 

The SRB will facilitate better alignment of OAIs against our most pressing challenges 

consistent with our campaigning approach. Through tools like the mission-scoping analysis 

framework, DTRA will orient activities to support Combatant Command CWMD operational 

plans that offset an adversary’s ability to develop advanced WMD and dual-use capabilities, 

coerce potential partners, and prepare for conflict in a WMD environment through 

innovative solutions. Reducing risks in a resource-constrained environment through tradeoff analyses on an agency-wide basis allows the organization to prioritize resources. 

The agency must ensure our information and facilities are suitable for the modern digital 

environment, secure in the face of growing cyber and information based threats, and 

support the growing demand for classified workspace. An agency-wide understanding 

of current and future needs and requirements is 

essential, including telework and conferencing 

capacity, secure, reliable, and modern IT 

infrastructure. In addition, DTRA will provide 

decision support assistance to the Joint Force and 

Combatant Commands through a common platform 

that is adaptable to all Combatant Commands for 

adaptability and future capability enhancements. 

Finally, as DTRA transitions its intelligence resources 

and authorities to the Defense Intelligence Agency, 

it will do so in a way that preserves and expands 

mission support while protecting DTRA employees. 

DTRA will ensure the Department and agency 

have the necessary foundational and actionable 

intelligence on foreign WMD programs while also 

leading the Department in operationalizing 

CWMD intelligence. 

4 

DTRA workforce attend 

the P3S Senior Leader 

panel to attain a more 

informed understanding 

of dynamic processes, 

from soliciting novel 

inputs and ideas to 

outlining the cost and 

benefits of decisions and 

gaining consensus. 

Photo by: 

Chris Nicely, 

DTRA Visual 

Information Division 
16 

Director’s Strategic Intent 

UNCLASSIFIED 

Recruiting, retaining, and empowering a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and highly skilled 

workforce remains vital to ensuring our human capital advantage. As DTRA sustains 

strategic management of its total force, we must make progress on critical human capital 

initiatives that address current and future requirements. Our retention strategies will 

include agency initiatives to accelerate hiring and onboarding for hard-to-fill positions, 

share best practices, and utilize and expand innovative approaches to meet the needs 

of our workforce. Effective human resource management also requires human capital 

forecasting and analytics capability that supports personnel management, including 

recruiting and job progression. 

As DTRA continues to evolve through a more agile and responsive workplace, supervisors 

will adapt and modernize processes within their purview, provide avenues for professional 

growth, and remove institutional barriers. Through a strengthened talent management 

process, the agency will improve governance oversight and accountability for career 

development. Operationalizing the Talent Management Board as a corporate means to 

promote and enhance our workforce and build opportunities for our highest performers 

will be essential. In addition, the agency will continue to champion rotational details, joint 

duty assignments, and other skill-broadening opportunities for experiential growth within 

the workforce while establishing effective reintegration strategies for personnel returning 

from these temporary assignments. 

In 2024, the agency will continue to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts 

as essential elements for building and sustaining the workforce of the future and 

institutionalizing cultural change throughout the agency. Leveraging vital survey 

data such as that provided by the FEVS, the agency will continue to expand critical 

initiatives within the Human Capital Roadmap 

to reduce feelings of exclusion, harassment, 

or perceived serious climate issues across the 

agency through transparent communications 

and concrete actions. 

DTRA members convene 

to receive instruction on 

Emergenetics, a workplace 

process that boosts 

employee performance, 

engagement, and retention. 

Photo by: 

Chris Nicely, 

DTRA Visual 

Information Division 

Advance the Workforce of 5 the Future 
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UNCLASSIFIED

Leading with 

our Values 

In the face of growing WMD threats and intensified 

strategic completion, DTRA’s mission has never been more 

pressing. Sustaining excellence within our core functions 

while adapting and innovating to meet new and emerging 

challenges in ways that leverage the talent across both our 

Defense Agency and Combat Support Agency functions 

is essential. The agency cannot meet these challenges 

and deliver on our responsibilities to the broader CWMD 

enterprise if we lose sight of our responsibilities as leaders in 

this field. Our leadership principles must guide our actions, 

encourage our workforce, and align with the importance of 

our mission. As agency leaders we must be: 

Team Oriented 

This agency is large, complex, diverse, and dispersed, but 

we must still aspire to be a single cohesive team. We will 

emphasize transparency and open lines of communication 

as the foundation of teamwork. Historical stovepipes must 

be replaced with agency-wide integration and we must 

enhance our ability to anticipate customer needs during 

crisis, synchronize our considerable resources to increase 

effectiveness, and work with key partners where our purposes 

align. It is only through teamwork that the agency’s strategic 

priorities can be realized. 

People Centric 

The DTRA workforce is our most valuable resource. DTRA 

possesses extensive capabilities designed to tackle a wide 

range of WMD challenges, but these are nothing without 

the human capital required to develop and implement 

them. The agency must maximize the strategic impact of its 

human capital through innovative partnerships and provide 

pathways for career growth. Embracing a climate in which 

all people are valued, and diversity of thought, perspective, 

background, and identity are appreciated is key to an 

inclusive work environment. 

Mission Focused 

DTRA’s CWMD mission is both complex and dynamic— 

one that spans the continuum from adversary threat 

conceptualization to U.S. forces’ attack mitigation and 

recovery. However, every member of our DTRA team is united 

in purpose that our work matters to our national security, to 

the well-being of allies and partners around the world, and to 

the safety and security of family and loved ones here at home. 

Conclusion 

As China and Russia expand their 

WMD capabilities and challenge the 

international order, DTRA is preparing 

for and responding to the current and 

emerging WMD threats that pose the 

gravest risks to our nation. Forthcoming 

agency planning guidance and action 

plans will provide the way ahead for 

executing our core functions and 

implementing the agency strategic 

initiatives highlighted here. DTRA, as the 

pre-eminent CWMD agency in the USG, 

must ensure we are prepared to meet 

the challenges of our evolving security 

environment. We will continue to provide 

the necessary capabilities, expertise, and 

programs to support a robust defense 

against WMD that ensures the United 

States and its allies are able to deter, 

prevent, and prevail across the global 

security environment. 

Everything we do at DTRA comes down 

to one thing: protecting the American 

people and our way of life. We must 

prevent, reduce, and counter current and 

emerging WMD threats, sustain a safe, 

secure, and effective nuclear deterrent, 

and enable the Joint Force, allies, and 

partners to compete and win against 

WMD-armed adversaries. 
18 

Director’s Strategic IntentLEGACY

UNCLASSIFIED 

DTRA’s history is long 

and storied. We trace 

our roots all the way 

back to the Manhattan 

Project in 1947. 

A mission that began strictly as a weapons development 

program, quickly adapted to include weapons effects and 

survivability, as nuclear technology proliferated. During 

the Cold War, DTRA turned to stockpile stewardship and 

hardening targets. Post-Cold War, DTRA implemented 

non-proliferation and arms control activities, and in 

the 1990s began to delve into expanded definitions of 

Weapons of Mass Destruction, including chemical and 

biological threats. 

DTRA was established in 1998, and since that time has 

been entrusted with some of the Department’s most 

critical “emerging threat” missions. We have developed 

knowledge and capabilities to counter and defeat not only 

chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, but 

matured the DoD counter-Improvised Explosive Device 

(C-IED) and counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems 

(sUAS) portfolios, before transitioning these programs 

successfully to the U.S. Army. 

As technology changes – as the United States National 

Security landscape changes – DTRA leads the way to deter, 

prevent, and prevail against WMD and emerging threats. 
UNCLASSIFIED 

U NITED STATES OF A M ERIC A 

DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AG ENCY 

DEFENSE ATOMIC SUPPORT AGENCY 

ARMED FORCES 

SPECIAL WEAPONS PROJECT 

M

ANHATTAN PROJECT 

BOMB 

ARMED FORCES 

S

PECIAL WEAPONS PROJEC

T

DEFENSE ATOMIC SUPPORT AGENCY 

U NITED STATES OF A M ERIC A 

D

EFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AG ENCY 
UNCLASSIFIED 

UNCLASSIFIED 

Defense Threat Reduction Agency 

8724 John J. Kingman Road, Stop 6201 

Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060-6201 

DTRA.mil