Reporting on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defence issues often confronts the issues of neglect. Barring the occasional crisis that promotes a period of spending and concern, CBRN defence often lags behind in priorities. If there is a country within Europe that breaks this paradigm and consisting carries its weight in terms of CBRN defence, there is a strong that the Czechs should win the prize. The Czech Republic contributes capacity and capability in several different ways in CBRN defence, in both military and industrial terms.
The history of the Czech Republic’s position of relative strength goes back all the way to the early 1920s. Born out of the ashes of the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg empire, the new country then known as Czechoslovakia developed a reasonably modern military with its own defence industry. It had a modest offensive chemical weapons capability, as did many countries in Europe at the time, but it also had a very good military chemical defence programme. After the Second World War, when Czechoslovakia became a Soviet satellite state, it became a centre of excellence for CBRN defence technology within the Warsaw Pact and built up a cadre of very experienced military and academic experts within the field.
Of note, Czechoslovak army CBRN troops deployed to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-1991, adding valued expertise. As most of the CBRN expertise was based within the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, The Czech Republic inherited this legacy after the amicable divorce between the Czech lands and Slovakia. It should be noted that Slovakia does have some contributions in CBRN defence, but we shall reserve that topic for a later date.
Czech military capabilities
The current Czech Land Forces have not stepped back from the legacy and inheritance of the previous century and maintain a level of commitment to military CBRN defence that rates well above the European average. In comparison to many other European armies, the Czechs have proportionately more CBRN defence force structure than average. The majority of the CBRN defence troops are in the 31st Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Protection Regiment, established in 2013 and based in Liberec. It is comprised of two operational battalions (the 311th and 312th, both in Liberec) and the 314th Weapons of Mass Destruction Warning Centre in Hostivice.
In terms of recent procurement, the 31st has been significantly modernised. It has finally phased out its old Cold War-era BRDM-rkh CBRN recce vehicles and some now-dated Land Rover-based systems with 40 S-LOV-CBRN and 40 LOV-CBRN II vehicles, based on an IVECO platform. Produced by the Czech Republic’s own VVU (see below), these vehicles (which are well-described in issue 01/2022), this has been one of the most significant acquisitions of CBRN defence vehicles, anywhere, in the last decade. Upcoming procurements are clearly in the pipeline. A new generation of CBRN command and control vehicles are due to be bought in 2027, and new decontamination equipment is due before 2030.
Czech military CBRN defence specialists and units have been active in international multilateral missions. In earlier years, there were missions to Bosnia and Kosovo. Czech CBRN units spent several rotations in Iraq helping to train Iraqi specialists in 2018 and 2019. CBRN specialists routinely deployed to Afghanistan. Clearly, when NATO seeks deployable detachments of CBRN specialists. During the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Czech CBRN trainers have trained Ukrainians and a recent agreement in July 2024 specifies that The Czech Republic will provide aid to help military and civil CBRN protection in Ukraine.
The Czech military has good track record of both participating and hosting international exercises with a CBRN focus. The Czechs have hosted the ‘Coronat Mask’ exercise in 2018 as well as 2024, with eight hundred participants. They have promised to hold it again in 2026. Czechs have participated in various ‘Toxic Valley’ exercises in neighbouring Slovakia in recent years. Czechs even trekked all the way to Suffield, Alberta, in Canada for the ‘Precise Response’ exercise in 2022.
One of the most valued Czech contributions is their concentration of academics, both civilian and military. The Czech Republic has a concentration scientists, engineers, and medical doctors specialising in CBRN-related subjects, clustered primarily around Brno, that is disproportionately high for a country of its size. Some of the finest technical minds in the field are Czech. Numerous useful publications have emerged out of this CBRN centre of gravity.
NATO
Of as much significance as its own organic military CBRN forces, the Czechs play host to the majority of NATO CBRN infrastructure. As well as already being a centre of gravity, the Czechs host the NATO Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence, in Vyškov. As befits their status in the field, they also contribute a fair percentage of its staff and expertise. It is a hub for high quality training courses and represents a concentration of expertise. The fact that it was sited in Vyškov is a testament to NATO’s collective belief that it already was a national centre of excellence. Many of the international centre’s staff are Czechs, and even more have trained in The Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic also hosts the framework for Combined Joint CBRN Defence Task Force, although typically seven to ten NATO countries provide troops on rotation. The Task Force consists of a smaller, agile, Joint Assessment Team and a larger CBRN Defence battalion, built from rotational troops. The Czechs have been not just hosts but some of the largest contributors to this task force. Both the Centre and Battalion were described and discussed in more detail in ESD issue 6/2024.
Live agent training
One might start to think that all roads lead to Vyškov, near Brno. The Military Research Institute operates one of the few facilities in the entire world that allow military teams and civilian responders to train with actual live chemical warfare agents. The regulatory, environmental, and safety processes at Vyškov, are world-class, and CBRN responders can use their equipment and see how actual toxic chemical warfare agents look and act in a safe training environment. Live agent training is extremely valuable as a confidence-building measure. Soldiers and civil responders benefit greatly from knowing their protective equipment and procedures will keep them safe.
This correspondent, who was trained several times in the USA’s live agent facility, was deeply impressed with his visit to the Vyškov facility some years ago. It is more flexible than the US equivalent and affords more scope for tailoring training to specific end-users. Since the facility has experience with live agents, it is a competitive site for testing of chemical detection and decontamination technology as well. There is no doubt that this site’s training and testing activities have elevated CBRN readiness across Europe.
Protection of public transport
Ever since the 1996 Tokyo Sarin incidents, wherein religious extremists from the Aum Shinrikyo movement dispersed the nerve agent Sarin in five different railway cars in the Tokyo underground system. Although the death toll was low due to poor dispersion tactics, the incident highlighted the vulnerability of underground subway system to attack with chemical materials. Since then, some countries, particularly the USA, have put work into studying such threats. However, if you are paying attention in CBRN circles, you will have realised that the Czechs have been doing so for two decades.
Although it is not widely publicised, a variety of conference papers, technical articles, and government documents in the public domain acknowledge the fact that the Prague Metro system has long been the focus of chemical terrorism mitigation efforts. Numerous studies of the air flow in the Prague Metro system have led to a greater understanding how chemical hazards behave in such underground systems. Large exercises with military and civil responders have explored emergency response to a chemical incident and the subject of how to effectively decontaminate affected areas of the Metro system. Of even greater interest, various conference presentations at European CBRN conferences and company press releases have made clear reference to Bruker (Germany) and Smiths Detection (UK) chemical detection equipment being installed in the Prague Metro system. It should also be noted that the Prague Metro suffered flooding incidents in 2002, so perhaps we can consider The Czech Republic a centre of expertise on resilience in underground transport systems in both CBRN and non-CBRN scenarios.
Industrial contributions
The century or so of Czech emphasis on CBRN defence has long translated into an industrial base in CBRN affairs. Some of this industrial base continues to be state owned. Much of the industrial capability is bundled in with the country’s scientific and technical expertise in the form of Vojenský Výzkumný Ústav (VVU), which means ‘Military Technical Institute’. This is a state-owned enterprise, and it also has electronics and materials engineering divisions alongside its well-known CBRN arm clustered in Brno and Vyškov. VVU not only supports the Czech government’s civil and military programmes, but it also actively markets to other customers. The S-LOV-CBRN and LOV-CBRN II vehicles mentioned above are marketed for export business. VVU’s CBRN sample collection kits and sample transport kits are a valuable contribution in a rare niche. They have also developed transportable field chemical and radiological laboratories.
VVU is by no means the only CBRN industrial concern in The Czech Republic. Gumárny Zubří is a venerable Czech company, dating back nearly nine decades. It is, principally and originally, a rubber company, based near Ostrava in the eastern part of The Czech Republic. While it may be known for car mats for Audi, BMW, and Volkswagen cars, along with various other rubber goods, Gumárny Zubří is also the national manufacturer of CBRN protective masks. It originally made protective masks under licence from the British firm Leyland in the late 1930s. Ironically, some German soldiers carried Czech-made, British-designed protective masks in the Second World War, because of stocks seized when the Czech lands were annexed by Germany. The current Gumárny Zubří masks include OM-6, CM-6, and OM-2020, which are modern and effective. These products do get sold on the world market. Mira Safety, the US firm, markets them in many countries as part of a commercial arrangement with Gumárny Zubří.
While much glamour and publicity accompany high-tech items in CBRN defence, the boring reality is that older, less sophisticated technical solutions and products are often more useful in many CBRN defence applications. By this metric, a special position of honour must be given to the Czech enterprise Oritest. Oritest, headquartered in Prague and founded in 1992 out of expertise from the old state-owned defence industry, is an industry leader in development and manufacture of both detection and decontamination technologies that use older but proven technologies, such as colour-changing detector paper and chemical agent testing kits using wet chemistry principles. Their PDK, OR-3, and OSD-5 chemical decontamination products are less widespread around the world than German or Italian competitors but are reasonably effective. Importantly, Oritest sells all of these products at a price point that is competitive for the world market.
Other Czech firms are active in the CBRN space as well. Dekonta CBRN sells decontamination equipment. Ego Zlin produces tents and decontamination equipment. Pohorelec produces a variety of CBRN filters useful in vehicles or bunkers. Molpir is active in collective protection systems. Other Czech filter manufacturers occasionally come up on the radar, such as Vzduchotechnik and Hengst, particularly as part of a niche underground bunker market.
As befits the country that literally gave the word ‘robot’ to the world, The Czech Republic is doing interesting work in robotics in CBRN environments. The Brno Technical University is host to the Laboratory of Telepresence and Robotics (LTR). Their long-running Project Orpheus has developed and fielded small remotely-operated robots for chemical and radiological reconnaissance and detection. The Orpheus-AC2 is part of the suite of equipment fielded in VVU’s S-LOV CBRN reconnaissance vehicle. The Orpheus series is not the only military robot in The Czech Republic, nor is LTR the only robotics company. Given both the increasing role of robotics, better connectivity pathways, and improvements in CBRN detection, this is an area to watch. The Multi-domain Advanced Robotic Systems (MARS) conference in Prague will be of interest in 2024, not just in CBRN matters.
Why does it matter?
NATO is a diverse military alliance. It has one of the largest and best militaries in the world in the form of the United States armed forces, along with the French, and the British. Yet it also has small members. Iceland has no military. Luxembourg is tiny and has a miniscule military. Both NATO and the EU are full of countries whose military forces are in the small to medium range. It makes little economic or pragmatic sense for every small and medium-sized military in NATO or the EU to try to do everything.
Countries such as The Czech Republic, Portugal, and Estonia can all field infantry soldiers. Yet so much of modern warfare is also based on specialist capabilities and capacities where knowledge and technology are more important than mere simple manpower. Logistics, ordnance disposal, artillery target acquisition, cold weather warfare, electronic warfare (also something the Czechs also do well in), explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), minesweeping, tactical airlift, special operations forces (SOF) capability, combat engineering, and numerous other disciplines are important as well. The Czechs now have more CBRN reconnaissance vehicles that most of the other NATO members. Indeed, some NATO armies have zero. Others have a handful of superannuated ones of little value. In the event of a major CBRN incident in Europe, it seems likely that The Czech Republic would be part of the solution, possibly even leading it. The country has, for both historic and pragmatic reasons, decided to pursue a comparative advantage strategy in CBRN defence matters and has largely succeeded. The Czechs ‘punch above their weight’ in CBRN. They are leading by example.
Dan Kaszeta