 Noble Resolve 07-1 yields new opportunities for experimentation
The initial experiment of U.S. Joint Forces Command's Noble Resolve campaign designed to look at ways of enhancing homeland defense and support in the event of a natural or man-made disaster proved to yield promising results.
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(SUFFOLK, Va. - May 31, 2007) -- The initial experiment of U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Noble Resolve campaign designed to look at ways of enhancing homeland defense and support in the event of a natural or man-made disaster proved to yield promising results.
Designed with U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) as part of that command's efforts to improve homeland security, this first experiment, Noble Resolve 07-1, brought in more than 125 people from across the United States and other countries to develop solutions for U.S. agencies and organizations by providing the means to deter prevent, and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the U.S., its territories, and interests.
Navy Capt. John Kersh, Jr., who heads the Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate's (J9) Joint Context and Homeland Defense Department, said Noble Resolve gave participants an opportunity to experiment with things and people they normally wouldn't have a chance to work with.
"As we get together with different organizations, if they can identify things that they're interested in working on, we'll put together the vignettes and scenarios that allow them to get at the research objectives and work with folks that a lot of times they might not have the chance to work with," he said.
Participants teamed up throughout the experiment to use a number of modeling and simulation (M&S) tools to get a read on what would happen in two scenarios.
The first involved a hurricane, similar to Hurricane Katrina, coming from western Africa hitting the Hampton Roads. The second dealt with a terrorist attack coming from a ship that sailed from the western African region.
The Virginia Fusion Center, located in Richmond, worked in conjunction with Noble Resolve on the terrorist scenario. The center ran its own annual exercise called the Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise at the same time. Noble Resolve personnel communicated with Virginia officials and then shared information regarding a potential attack.
David Ozolek, executive director of the Joint Futures Laboratory in Suffolk, Va., which held the experiment, said the sharing of information amongst organizations proved to be critical throughout both scenarios.
"I think what we got was a reasonable assessment of our information flow and knowledge building in support of decision making capabilities as it stands today," he said. "The next step now is to map out where we need to make improvements."
Ozolek also said one area where he saw breakthrough production was in the technical area of M&S support for planning, mission rehearsal, training and experimentation.
"We did very effective demonstrations of some really powerful tools that have emerged within the last two years that have great potential to help us plan and respond to those types of situations," said Ozolek.
He said Noble Resolve officials will meet with commonwealth of Virginia officials including Governor Tim Kaine and mayors of the cities in Hampton Roads over the next few weeks to discuss the observations of the experiment in terms of information flow and decision making.
Ozolek gave praise to the commonwealth saying they've agreed to help out even more.
"What we actually learned working with Virginia is they've graciously agreed to work with us as we work with Oregon in August for Noble Resolve 07-2," he said.
Kersh said the overall lessons learned from Noble Resolve 07-1 will be brought to Noble Resolve 07-2. That experiment will consist of two more scenarios, the first involving an earthquake to the Portland area and the second dealing with a series of vignettes dealing with the Global War on Terror.
By the time the Noble Resolve 07 campaign comes to a close in August, USJFCOM and NORTHCOM will have partnered with the U.S. Transportation Command, and other federal agencies such as the Dept. of Homeland Security, the FBI and Customs and Border Protection.
It also will have teamed with individual states such as the commonwealth of Virginia and state of Oregon, as well as multinational participants to include Canada, Germany, Singapore, Finland and Sweden, amongst others.
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