Biological Warfare: From Passive Defense to Preemption?

Israel and the United States confront a new biological risk: pandemics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and critical infrastructure are blurring the boundaries between military defense and civilian protection. The challenge is no longer simply to survive an attack, but to detect a threat early enough to prevent it from paralyzing military forces and society — raising, ultimately, the question of preemption.

Biological warfare once conjured a relatively straightforward image: a pathogen used as a weapon, soldiers wearing protective gear, civilians sheltering from contamination, and medical teams treating casualties and decontaminating affected areas.

That picture is becoming outdated.

The US Army’s new biodefense strategy, unveiled in September 2026, starts from a much broader premise. The Army wants its forces to remain fully operational in what it calls a “biologically contested environment.”

Such an environment may result from a deliberate enemy attack, but it can also emerge from a naturally occurring pandemic or the accidental release of a pathogen. For scientists, lawyers and policymakers, the distinction is fundamental. For a military unit immobilized by contamination, however, the immediate operational consequences may be remarkably similar.

In all three cases, soldiers can become unavailable, bases can be isolated, transportation disrupted, supply chains interrupted and the deployment of forces compromised.

Biology is therefore no longer simply a matter of military medicine.

It is becoming a variable of warfare.

The Military Lesson of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that a pathogen does not need missiles or armored divisions to disrupt national power.

Transportation networks, industries, hospitals, government agencies and international mobility were all affected. Militaries themselves had to modify training, deployments and force-health measures.

The US Army is now drawing an operational conclusion from that experience.

Lt. Col. Dave Kingery, the Army’s biological defense integrator, has stated the objective plainly: a global pandemic or another health emergency must not prevent the United States from projecting forces forward, fighting and enduring through a conflict.

The doctrinal shift can almost be summarized in that single statement.

Yesterday, medicine protected the soldier.

Today, biodefense must protect the ability to wage war itself.

From the Mask to the Sensor

The Army’s strategy organizes this transformation around five lines of effort: building knowledge, gaining situational awareness, managing information and communications, building biodefense readiness, and modernizing biodefense.

Behind that structure lies a deeper transformation.

Traditional biological defense was largely reactive. A threat appeared; authorities identified it, protected personnel, isolated affected areas, vaccinated, treated and decontaminated.

The Army now wants to move further upstream.

It plans to integrate biological sensors into existing systems, accelerate sample analysis, improve information-sharing among the military, government agencies and allies, and use artificial intelligence to identify unusual biological patterns earlier.

Portable genetic sequencing devices already allow deployed personnel to analyze certain suspicious samples in roughly 24 hours. In the past, those samples might have had to be sent back to the continental United States, with results taking weeks.

Compressing that timeline changes the nature of the problem.

Biology becomes intelligence.

When AI Watches the Living World

Artificial intelligence adds another dimension.

The objective is not merely to recognize a known pathogen. It is to establish a biological baseline: What diseases normally circulate in a region? How frequently? How transmissible are they? What environmental variations are normal?

By processing large quantities of health, environmental and scientific data, AI can help identify........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)