Caption: Former headquarters of the On-Site Inspection Agency, a predecessor of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, located at Dulles-International Airport, Va. (DTRA photo)

DTRA is the youngest agency in the Department of Defense, but in a way it is also the oldest, pre-dating the Department itself. The agency was created from a number of other entities to focus their efforts on terrorism, our own nuclear surety, and counterproliferation.

DTRA’s rich legacy extends back to the Manhattan Engineering Project that was created to develop the world’s first atomic bomb during World War II. After the war, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project was established to conduct military training in nuclear weapon operations. The organization changed over the years (Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, 1947-1959, Defense Atomic Support Agency, 1959-1971, Defense Nuclear Agency, 1971-1996, Defense Special Weapons Agency 1996-1998) and was called the Defense Special Weapons Agency, the Department of Defense’s center for nuclear and advanced weapons effects expertise, when it became part of DTRA.

Another DTRA legacy organization is the On-Site Inspection Agency, formed in 1988 to carry out the on-site inspection and escorting responsibilities of the U.S. government under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

For a time, the Director of DTRA was also dual-hatted as the director of the Defense Technology Security Administration, which was formed in 1985 as a field activity under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy to manage the Department of Defense’s license review process for the export of dual-use technologies and munitions. That organization eventually returned to the Pentagon.

Another element of the new agency was the Cooperative Threat Reduction program office, which transferred from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. Its mission was to implement the Nunn-Lugar program to assist the nations of the former Soviet Union in reducing their weapons of mass destruction subject to international arms control treaties.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense program management office for Chemical-Biological Defense programs also was transferred into DTRA.