Medical, Physical Readiness, Training, and Access Authorization Standards for Protective Force Personnel

The Department of Energy (DOE or Department) is amending its regulations governing the standards for medical, physical performance, training, and access authorizations for protective force (PF) personnel employed by contractors providing security services to the Department. Since the publication of the existing regulations in 1984, and particularly since 9/11, the DOE has totally transformed its approach to dealing with a much-evolved terrorist threat. This transformation has been informed by repeated analysis and testing since 9/11. The primary changes are: a move to more sophisticated weapons and detection and targeting systems, an increased reliance on hardened positions and armored response vehicles, and increased use of barriers to channel adversaries. The result is a defensive strategy designed to take full advantage of the fact that the terrorist must fight through the protective force to reach our SNM and other targets. This contrasts directly with the posture in the 1980s and 1990s. Today we expect the terrorist to fight his way through a pre-positioned, layered defense, which places a premium on operating sophisticated weapons and detection and tracking systems. The proposed revisions bring DOE protective force firearms qualification, training, medical and physical readiness requirements in line with these tactical and organizational priorities of 2013. It removes barriers to maintaining the desired experience levels of our protective forces while maintaining established qualification standards. The revised regulations: emphasize firearms training and proficiency testing that reflect current military practice and simulations technology, maximizing training time and decreasing cost; implements the Mission Essential Task List (METL) training framework adapted from the military, which allows for more effective use of training resources by aligning them with validated mission performance priorities, eliminate medical disqualifications for conditions which have