India’s chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) preparedness requires urgent doctrinal, technological and medical recalibration as contemporary conflicts demonstrate how rapidly legacy industrial chemicals, drones, and radiological vulnerabilities can be weaponised at scale, according to a report by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI).
Drawing on documented case studies from Ukraine, Syria, the Novichok poisonings, historical industrial disasters and global health emergencies, the report contends that the spectrum of CBRN threats has widened beyond traditional battlefield scenarios to include state-sponsored assassinations, non-state actor experimentation, radiological trafficking and hospital surge failures during biological crises.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is described as the most significant contemporary theatre for observed CBRN escalation, where chemical agents not traditionally classified as warfare agents have been deployed repeatedly and at scale.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has documented over 6,000 instances of chemical munitions use between February 2023 and March 2025, averaging nearly six attacks per day. Confirmed agents include CS gas, chloropicrin and chloroacetophenone — substances banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention when used as a method of warfare.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed the presence of CS agent in samples collected along confrontation lines through three Technical Assistance Visit reports issued between November 2024 and June 2025.
For India, the strategic lesson is stark: industrial chemicals can be rapidly weaponised and dispersed using drones across wide frontages, demanding upgrades to detection systems, doctrine and personal protective equipment designed for a narrower threat spectrum.
Radiological Risks And Drone Vulnerabilities
The report highlights how radiological risks have re-entered strategic calculations. Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and a February 2025 drone strike on Chornobyl’s Unit 4 triggered the first operational activation of the European Union’s rescEU CBRN emergency reserves.
This episode underlined the vulnerability of legacy nuclear infrastructure to low-cost drone attacks and the importance of pre-positioned multinational CBRN response stocks. The International Atomic Energy Agency recorded over 300 incidents of illicit radioactive material trafficking in 2023 alone, including stolen medical isotopes and attempted cross-border smuggling — challenges directly relevant to India’s ports and land borders, the report notes.
The Syrian civil war is cited as the largest modern chemical weapons programme since the First World War, with over 100 confirmed chemical attacks between 2014 and 2020 despite accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Incidents at Ghouta, Khan Shaykhun and Douma demonstrated sustained use of sarin and chlorine.
The Islamic State’s use of sulphur mustard against Kurdish forces in 2015 marked the first confirmed use of a blister agent by a non-state actor in the modern era. Meanwhile, the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury in 2018 and of Alexei Navalny in 2020 illustrated the willingness of states to deploy fourth-generation nerve agents outside warzones, including on foreign soil.
These examples show that CBRN threats now extend beyond battlefields into civilian spaces, transportation networks and diplomatic contexts.
A peer-reviewed study cited in the report found significant knowledge gaps among Ukrainian civilian first responders in managing CBRN scenarios during the war. This reinforces the need to expand CBRN medical training beyond specialist units to broader hospital and emergency networks.
The World Health Organisation has trained more than 3,400 healthcare workers globally since 2022 in chemical and radiological incident management, while its South-East Asia Regional Office has been running structured CBRN capacity-building programmes for Indian health personnel with a focus on hospital preparedness and antidote stockpiling.
The report argues that India must integrate CBRN protocols into mainstream emergency medicine rather than treating them as niche contingencies.
AI, Detection And The Expanding Technology Layer
Artificial intelligence is identified as a force multiplier for CBRN detection, enabling faster anomaly recognition and predictive analytics. Machine learning systems can continuously refine performance as new threat data emerges, improving speed and accuracy in threat identification.
However, the report cautions that AI-driven systems require robust validation procedures, secure data management and constant human oversight to prevent false positives or negatives in high-stakes environments.
The technology stack referenced includes ion mobility spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, surface acoustic wave sensors, PCR and CRISPR-based biological detection, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotic reconnaissance platforms, and advanced decontamination systems.
The report situates modern risks alongside historical benchmarks: the Bhopal industrial disaster in 1984, the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, the anthrax letters in the United States in 2001, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
These events collectively reshaped global safety standards, counterterrorism policy, biodefence and nuclear regulation, and serve as reminders that CBRN threats often emerge from industrial, civilian or public health systems rather than conventional warfare alone.
The global CBRN security market, valued at USD 20.87 billion in 2025, is projected to reach USD 22.33 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 7 per cent, driven by conflict-led procurement in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, post-pandemic biological preparedness and demand for AI-integrated detection platforms. |
