NBC shelter

NBC shelter considerations

The cold war is over, but rather than diminishing, the threat of nuclear, biological and chemicals has, if anything, grown, largely due to increased availability of such agents to terrorist groups whose aim is to cause as much harm as possible to our society.  Now, more than ever, there is a very real need for NBC shelter systems, fixed and mobile that can provide protection for security forces.

 In the past, a fixed NBC shelter was a massive and expensive business that demanded a great deal of planning, massive construction works and the utilization of many different technologies.  Today, construction a fixed NBC shelter is still a daunting task but the technologies exist that have enabled the develop of a mobile NBC shelter. 

 An NBC shelter must be capable of providing its inhabitants with protection from radiation, chemical and biological agents and blast damage.  This means that any NBC shelter, fixed or mobile, must function for extended periods of time as a reliable and airtight self sustaining unit.  This brings many challenges to the design and fabrication of an NBC shelter.  These challenges are multiplied many times when they relate to a mobile NBC shelter.

 Before I go on, let me make it clear that when I talk about a mobile NBC shelter, I am referring to a NBC shelter that is mobile in the sense that it can be moved from one location to another.  However, despite advances in technology, construction materials and methods, a mobile NBC shelter is still a massive construction whose movement demands heavy transportation equipment, cranes with a large lifting capacity and load bearing, multi-wheeled trucks.

 So why bother with a mobile NBC shelter?  Why not just build a conventional, permanent NBC shelter?  The answer to that question lies in the changes our society has undergone over the last 20-30 years.  In the past, the NBC shelter was a protective structure designed to house and protect in the event of a nuclear war.  Its main market was defense, government and infrastructure so that, in the event of nuclear holocaust vital national resources would continue to function. 

With end of the cold war and the threat of global nuclear warfare in the past, there is a need for a NBC shelter for protection, still for vital national services, from terrorist attacks by terrorist organizations that have access to weapons of mass destruction.  The mobile NBC shelter importance derives from the availability of such weapons to terrorists, their small size and the ease with which they can be moved from place to place. 

 This availability means that risk assessment for vital national installations is far more fluid than in the past.  Cost considerations make the construction of a fixed NBC shelter at every strategic location impractical.  But the advent of new technologies have made the deployment of mobile NBC shelter systems possible, albeit a logistical nightmare.