FM 3-3 CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION AVOIDANCE

US Army Field Manual on CD in Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) format.

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What's inside:

The mission of the Chemical Corps is to prepare the Army to survive and win in a Chemical and Biological (CB) warfare environment by

• Developing doctrine, organizations, training products, and equipment for CB defense, chemical retaliation, and smoke and flame operations.
• Minimizing the impact of CB weapons through contamination avoidance, protection, and decontamination.
• Employing smoke.
• Employing flame.

A general overview of these fundamentals is given in FM 3-100, NBC Operations. This manual, FM 3-3, defines and clarifies the entire process of CB contamination avoidance. Another manual, FM 3-3-1, outlines contamination avoidance procedures for nuclear operations. This manual has limited distribution specially for separate brigades, division, and corps level NBC Control Centers. Unless otherwise stated, whenever the masculine gender is used, both men and women are included.

FM 3-3 details the NBC Warning and Reporting System, how to locate and identify CB contamination, and how to operate in and around NBC contamination. This manual is designed and intended to be an easy-to-read, step-by-step manual depicting the manual method of calculating CB contamination avoidance procedures for chemical officers and NCOs. However, subject matter discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 and Appendices A and C are of general use for all branches and MOS.

Chapter 1 defines the CB Threat, how to reduce unit vulnerability, and implements STANAG 2984, graduated levels of NBC Threat and minimum protection.

Chapter 2 defines how we warn our troops of an enemy CB attack and how we warn of a friendly chemical attack.

Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 detail procedures for detecting, identifying, evaluating and plotting hazards while operating in an CB environment. These chapters are essential for battalion, brigade, and division chemical personnel.

Appendix A provides operational situation guidelines for the principles of contamination avoidance in the form of a checklist.

Appendix B provides supplemental information on biological agents and a list of country codes used in processing biological samples.

Contamination avoidance is the best defense against enemy use of chemical and biological (CB) weapons. Avoidance reduces the risk of being targeted by CB agents and minimizes the effects of CB contamination hazards. Knowing where contamination exists or how long the hazard may persist is essential to avoiding the hazard. Enemy use of CB weapons make battlefield operations more difficult and time consuming. Combat, combat support, and combat service support operations may be more difficult to perform in a CB environment. Tasks/missions may take more time, but they require prior training in Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) gear because of the problems created by CB contamination. CB attacks may cause casualties, materiel losses, and creation of many obstacles. Training will reduce the problems caused by CB attacks on the unit. Units must locate clean areas as well as locate contamination in an CB environment. Contaminated units will have to perform decontamination (decon) operations.

To survive and accomplish the mission, individuals and units must take precautions to avoid or minimize effects of initial and residual CB hazards. The threat of contamination may force individuals and units into MOPP gear or into collective protection. Wearing MOPP gear results in heat buildup and degrades individual performance. Using collective protection requires special procedures that are time consuming. See FM 3-4 for information on what measures or steps an enemy CB attack may affect friendly forces. FM 3-3 outlines how to anticipate an enemy CB attack and minimize the effects on friendly forces.

PAGES: 144

PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER, 1992

THIS ITEM IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AND CD-ROM DELIVERY