Working closely with U.S. Northern Command to support its mission of homeland defense, U.S. Joint Forces Command will soon begin the Noble Resolve experimentation series which will examine ways to enhance homeland defense and improve military support to civil authorities in advance of and following natural and man-made disasters.
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By MCC(SW/AW) Chris Hoffpauir
USJFCOM Public Affairs
JFCOM.mil
(SUFFOLK, Va. - March 30, 2007) -U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) will bring together several partners to take a sharp look at homeland defense and relationships at various levels of government as it begins its first Noble Resolve experiment here April 23.
Noble Resolve is a USJFCOM-sponsored experimentation campaign in support of U.S. Northern Command's (NORTHCOM) efforts to enhance homeland defense and improve military support to civil authorities in advance of and following natural and man-made disasters.
USJFCOM will partner not only with major federal organizations like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and NORTHCOM, but also with state-level organizations like the commonwealth of Virginia and, in a later phase, the state of Oregon.
The experimentation series, managed by USJFCOM's Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate (J9) here, will develop solutions for agencies and organizations by providing the means to deter, prevent, and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the U.S., its territories, and interests. It will also examine ways to provide improved defense support to civil authorities and build upon global partnerships.
Navy Capt. John M. Kersh, Jr., who heads J9's Joint Context and Homeland Defense Department, said the command established Noble Resolve to answer questions raised during the USJFCOM/U.S. Army Unified Quest 2006 wargame, which explored a DHS scenario for an unaccounted-for, "loose," ten kiloton nuclear weapon.
"It's a venue that we're providing to allow a variety of organizations to work issues that they're concerned about, and have access to partners that they wouldn't normally have access to," Kersh said.
"I'm sure there are already some working relationships. Anything we can do to enhance those relationships and introduce other people, that's a great thing."
He said the scenario of the experiment's first phase starts with multinational partners and goes down to individual municipalities. It begins with a threat that originates in Europe and travels toward the United States.
"You try to prevent the problem by working with your multinational partners," Kersh said.
"And give the multinational partners an opportunity to interrupt the threat as soon as possible, so you work the problem as far in advance as you can."
Kersh said that as the scenario progresses, other agencies and other layers of government become involved.
"The problem eventually arrives at the commonwealth of Virginia with that threat making it into port and then blowing up. This will cause us to work the consequence management part of the problem," he said.
"One of the capabilities that's going to be flexed during this is a new capability that the commonwealth has stood up called the fusion center. It's manned by folks from Virginia, including the state police, and they've got actual DHS employees in there as well. The fusion center is in a state police headquarters and it's collocated with Virginia's emergency operations center."
Kersh said Noble Resolve coincides with the annual Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise (VERTEX), which focuses on Virginia's first responders' ability to respond to hurricanes and other disasters. Kersh commented on the integration of the Virginia exercise with Noble Resolve.
"The commonwealth of Virginia has been incredibly proactive in reaching out to Joint Forces Command to work any number of issues - modeling and simulation and especially homeland defense."
Kersh said there will be two Noble Resolve events per year. The first in concert with VERTEX and the other coordinated with DHS, possibly to coincide with one of that department's major exercises.
Kersh said the first phase of the experiment will also include a series of a series of VIP visits, in which the command will provide updates and a demonstration showing the utility of modeling and simulation tools in emergency response planning.
Kersh said that like USJFCOM's other experiments, Noble Resolve will follow a spiral path.
"As we go, it'll be a series of briefs where we capture what we've learned up to that point," he said.
"As we find things that are particularly important, we'll work to get those new ways of doing business out to the training community so those can be rolled in the formal exercise series."
Later this year, USJFCOM will work with city officials in Portland, Ore., and the Oregon National Guard as they prepare for DHS's Top Officials (TOPOFF) exercise in October, which is designed to strengthen the nation's capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from large-scale terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.
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