The Federal Protective Forces (also known as FPF, Protective Forces or ProFor) are
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
forces of the
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
(DOE) responsible for the protection of Category I
special nuclear material Special nuclear material (SNM) is a term used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the United States to classify fissile materials. The NRC divides special nuclear material into three main categories, according to the risk and potential for its d ...
. Though officially classified as
security police, they hold
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
status (under section 161k of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954) while engaged in the performance of official duties. Officers are equipped and trained to respond to serious incidents at Department of Energy facilities by armed adversaries and to reacquire stolen
nuclear material
Nuclear material refers to the metals uranium, plutonium, and thorium, in any form, according to the IAEA. This is differentiated further into "source material", consisting of natural and depleted uranium, and "special fissionable material", con ...
. The FPFs have been described, by the DOE, as "elite fighting forces" designed to operate in "
combat environments".
Background
The Federal Protective Forces are responsible for defending Department of Energy sites at which Category I special material is stored. This generally includes
uranium-235
Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exis ...
,
uranium-233, and
plutonium-239 in certain formulations. Under the provisions of the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2011-2021, 2022-2286i, 2296a-2297h-13, is a United States federal law that covers for the development, regulation, and disposal of nuclear materials and facilities in the United States.
It was an ame ...
, Protective Forces personnel have been granted limited arrest authority; they may make
probable cause arrests while on-duty and for a specific series of federal crimes related to nuclear material and government property.
The Federal Protective Forces are heavily armed, which is reflective of the anticipated capabilities of an adversary likely to attempt an assault against a Category I material-holding site. The current hypothetical adversary against which Protective Forces prepare is described in a 2004 Design Basis Threat (DBT) issued by the Department of Energy. Though the DBT is classified, the hypothetical adversary has been generally described as a "larger" force that would seek to overrun the defenses of a DOE facility in order to capture Category I special material. Department of Energy studies have indicated that up to 50 percent of a Protective Forces detachment would be killed responding to some variations of the threat envisaged.
The size of individual Protective Forces detachments ranged, in 2007, from between 233 and 533 personnel per protected site.
Operations
Organization
The Protective Forces are recruited and employed by private companies, yet are trained, equipped, and under the operational command of Defense Nuclear Security, a program of the Department of Energy's
National Nuclear Security Administration
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and e ...
(two Protective Forces, those at the Savannah River Site and the Idaho National Laboratory, are under the control of the DOE's Office of Environmental Management). Each Department of Energy site housing a Protective Forces contingent contracts with a different company for manpower.
Protective Forces are sited at eight Department of Energy facilities:
*
Hanford Site
*
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. While the laboratory does other research, historically it has been involved with nu ...
*
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
*
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
*
Nevada Test Site
*
Pantex Plant
Pantex is the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility that aims to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The facility is located in the Panhandle of Texas on a site ...
*
Savannah River Site
*
Y-12 National Security Complex
The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was built as part of the Manhattan Proje ...
*
Honeywell FM&T Kansas City
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance mat ...
Equipment
Protective Forces employ a variety of weaponry including the
SR-25
The SR-25 (Stoner Rifle-25) is a designated marksman rifle and semi-automatic sniper rifle designed by Eugene Stoner and manufactured by Knight's Armament Company.
The SR-25 uses a rotating bolt and a direct impingement gas system. It is loose ...
rifle,
HK69 grenade launcher, and
Mk 19 grenade launcher
The Mk 19 grenade launcher (pronounced Mark 19) is an American 40 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that was first developed during the Vietnam War.
Overview
The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-serve ...
. In the mid-2000s, Protective Forces began to acquire and deploy
M134
The M134 Minigun is an American 7.62×51mm NATO six-barrel rotary machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute). It features a Gatling-style rotating barrel assembly with an external power source, normally an electric ...
miniguns. These are mounted on the
Lenco BearCat armored personnel carriers
An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world.
Acc ...
used by the Protective Forces, as well as static gun emplacements at Department of Energy facilities.
Protective Forces are equipped with more than 80
Lenco BearCat armored personnel carriers system-wide, and also use the
Polaris 500 ATV
ATV may refer to:
Broadcasting
* Amateur television
*Analog television
Television stations and companies
* Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra
* ATV (Armenia)
* ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate
* ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourne
* ATV (Austria)
* AT ...
and a variety of soft-shelled vehicles.
Prior to 2010, Protective Forces uniforms varied from site to site. That year, the NNSA adopted a mandatory, system-wide uniform. The NNSA estimated the standardized uniform would save the Department of Energy $500,000 over eight years due to bulk purchase savings, as well as "promote solidarity" among the disparate Protective Forces.
Training
The Protective Forces are trained at the Department of Energy's National Training Center in
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
, with some specialized training occurring at the Y-12 National Security Complex in
Oak Ridge,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
.
The Department of Energy organizes 26-man Composite Adversary Teams (CAT) that probe Protective Forces-secured sites to identify weaknesses and test the preparedness of Protective Forces units in responding to an attack. CAT members are drawn from the regular Protective Forces for rotating, one-to-two week
opposing force
An opposing force (alternatively enemy force, abbreviated OPFOR) is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios. The related concept of aggressor squadron is used by some air forces. T ...
assignments overseen by a dedicated, 12-man training nucleus.
Key issues
Incidents
Mid-2000s Pantex issues
In 2006 the Department of Energy Inspector General received complaints from inside the
Pantex Plant
Pantex is the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility that aims to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The facility is located in the Panhandle of Texas on a site ...
that Protective Forces were not being issued the correct
night-vision equipment to safely operate their
Mk 19 grenade launcher
The Mk 19 grenade launcher (pronounced Mark 19) is an American 40 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that was first developed during the Vietnam War.
Overview
The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-serve ...
s, a complaint it later substantiated after an investigation, though the NNSA rejected the report's findings.
The following year, 524 members of the Protective Forces detachment at Pantex, whose personnel were provided by
BWX Technologies
BWX Technologies, Inc. (), headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia is a supplier of nuclear components and fuel to the U.S. On July 1, 2015, BWX Technologies Inc. began trading separately from its former subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc ...
, went on strike in protest of the Department of Energy's decision to revise the pension and medical benefits it provided to contractors. During the 44-day strike, a 210-man replacement force, composed of supervisors and non-unionized personnel assigned to other Department of Energy sites, was assembled to secure Pantex. Both the National Council of Security Police, the union for Protective Forces personnel, and the
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a Nonpartisanism, nonpartisan non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., Washington, DC, that investigates and works to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest in the Federal gove ...
called for Pantex to be shut down during the dispute due to what was claimed to be a serious erosion of the security of nuclear weapons stored at the facility. The Department of Energy rejected claims that the security of nuclear material was compromised during the strike.
Y-12 security breach
In July 2012, three activists from
Plowshares were able to briefly gain entry to the
Y-12 National Security Complex
The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was built as part of the Manhattan Proje ...
. According to officials, the breach was the first time in the 70-year history of Y-12 that its perimeter had been successfully penetrated, shattering what had been described as an "aura of invincibility". Sixty days later the Department of Energy terminated the contract of WSI (formerly
Wackenhut
G4S Secure Solutions (USA) is an American / British-based security services company, and a subsidiary of G4S, G4S plc. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners (all ar ...
and later a subsidiary of
G4S
G4S is a British Multinational corporation, multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a ran ...
), which had provided Protective Forces to Y-12 for more than a decade. The contract for Protective Forces at Y-12 was subsequently awarded to National Strategic Protective Services, a joint venture of Securiguard and
Triple Canopy
Triple Canopy, Inc., is an American private security company that provides integrated security, mission support and risk management services to corporate, government and nonprofit clients. The firm was founded in May 2003 by Army Special Force ...
.
Future concerns
Federalization
The
Natural Resources Defense Council has called for the Protective Forces to be fully federalized, arguing that a non-federalized force may have less willingness to "stay and fight" against a very committed adversary able to inflict heavy casualties. Representatives of Protective Forces personnel have also called for the forces to be federalized.
Federalization has been opposed by the Department of Energy. The International Union of Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America also oppose federalization, noting that a federalized force would no longer be able to participate in
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
or other union activities.
Risk to civilian populations
Some have called for Category I material-holding sites located near populated areas to be moved to more remote regions due to the threat of heavy civilian deaths that could be incidentally inflicted by the Protective Forces while defending a site from attack. For instance, a neighborhood sits within the range of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory's M134 gun emplacements, creating the potential that "children at play, joggers and families working in their yards" could be subjected to heavy defensive shelling by Federal Protective Forces if an attack originated from their direction.
An NNSA study noted that the level of force and types of weaponry the Protective Forces would deploy in pursuit of an adversary which had seized nuclear material and moved it off-site may produce heavy "
collateral non-combatant casualties" during a recapture operation.
SPOTC
Since 1972, the Department of Energy, and its predecessor agencies, have organized the annual Security Police Officer Training Competition (SPOTC), a tactical contest pitting nuclear security units against each other. In addition to the Federal Protective Forces, external teams have been invited from the U.S. armed forces. In 2001, the first international teams entered, with a contingent representing the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
's
Atomic Energy Authority
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( ...
.
See also
*
Nuclear Emergency Support Team
The Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST), formerly known as the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, is a team of scientists, technicians, and engineers operating under the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration ...
*
Safeguards Transporter
References
{{Authority control
Nuclear weapons
United States Department of Energy agencies
Military units and formations established in 1950
1950 establishments in the United States
Federal law enforcement agencies of the United States
Paramilitary organizations
Nuclear security agencies