Members of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and ten Armenian government agencies conducted a five-day, multiple-location, Counter-Weapons of Mass Destruction Field Training Exercise (FTX) in Armenia on Sept. 19-24.

The goals and objectives for the FTX were to identify gaps and train Armenian government personnel so the United States Government can assess and assist other Armenian interagency partners with fulfilling those gaps outside of the exercise.

DTRA International Program Manager and member of the Cooperative Threat Reduction’s (CTR) Proliferation Prevention Program (PPP) Elizabeth DuFrane said the relationship with Armenia started in 2011 when there were known radiological items that were being smuggled across the border between Armenia to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and all across the Black Sea.

At that time, PPP was invited to Armenia to do an assessment with European Combatant Command G5 on border security and proliferation threats.

The week-long FTX consisted of multiple scenarios touching all aspects of WMD threats in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) space.

“Armenia is a geopolitical chessboard, in between the north and the countries to the south and then their neighbors east to west. It’s growing in popularity as we are starting to see a lot more exports of their goods, a lot more imports and a lot of trans-shipment,” said DuFrane.