The Technology Development directorate was established during DTRA's 2000 re-organization, during which DTRA's four core mission areas-combat support, technology development, threat control, and threat reduction-were established. The directorate was established with the goals of aligning the individuals responsible for carrying out the agency's complex research and development (R&D;) programs into a single organization, and providing technologies to support the combat support and threat reduction mission areas. The new directorate inherited the R&D; functions of the former Counterproliferation Support and Operations directorate, the nuclear survivability functions and technologies of the former Nuclear Support and Operations directorate, and the research programs associated with arms control treaties.

Following the Persian Gulf War of 1991, DTRA legacy agencies recognized that the available technology for predicting the collateral effects of potential weapons of mass destruction use was inefficient and untimely. In response, they developed two new software tools to model the effects of releases of nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological weapons and materials. These tools, HPAC (Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability) and CATS (Consequences Assessment Tool Set), have since become widely-accepted in the modeling and simulation community.

Since its inception, the Technology Development directorate's activities have focused on enhancing and enabling the unified combatant commands' WMD operations support, combat support and threat reduction missions. The directorate has carried out complex studies, analyses, computer models and simulations on the effects and impacts of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosive weapons.

In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, DTRA organized a quick-response team including personnel from the Navy, Airforce, Department of Energy (DOE) and private industry to identify, test, integrate and field a rapid solution that would enhance weapons options in countering hardened underground targets. This fast-paced program developed the GBU-24 laser-guided weapon that was successfully tested and then deployed in Afghanistan, where it was used against hard and buried targets. DTRA's Hard Target Research and Analysis Center (HTRAC) became operational in 2002. The center supports the characterization and three-dimensional model development of hard and deeply buried targets, and has developed a software tool (Underground Target Assessment Systems) for target characterization and bomb damage analysis.

Among the directorate's projects in 2003 was an atmospheric dispersion study conducted in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This exercise, called Joint Urban, was co-sponsored by DTRA, DOE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and was aimed at advancing knowledge about movement of contaminants in and around cities and into and within building interiors. The data resulting from Joint Urban will be used to improve, refine and verify computer models that simulate the atmospheric transport of contaminants in urban areas.