The Pentagon Thursday formally opened the new 2,100-employee Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which was created from a merger of three arms control agencies.
The On-Site Inspection Agency, the Defense Special Weapons Agency and the Defense Technical Security Agency have been rolled into the new Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which will be headquartered in northern Virginia, near Dulles International Airport.
Jay Davis, a former associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the new agency's director. Air Force Maj. Gen. William F. Moore will be deputy director.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said the idea to form the DTRA came out of the Quadrennial Defense Review.
"What grew out of that was a view we weren't well organized to deal with the cross-cutting nature of counterproliferation and the challenges that posed," Hamre said. "These three organizations that are being brought together, along with other elements in [the Office of Secretary of Defense] and in the Army, all had various parts of the responsibilities to the broader problem, but you had to bring them all together to try to get one group that could focus on it."
The consolidation, Hamre said, will not result in cost savings for the Pentagon. In fact, he predicted the agency will need more funds in years to come as the proliferation threat grows.
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