 Noble
Resolve 07-2 aims at making communication easier
U.S.
Joint Forces Command's Noble Resolve 07-2 will use
modeling and simulation and long-distance virtual connections
as tools to help make an experiment possible as it
begins later this month to enhance homeland defense
measures and military support in the event of a natural
or man-made disaster.
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By
Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK,
Va. - Aug. 10, 2007) -- The second portion of U.S. Joint
Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Noble Resolve will kick off
later this month
with a series of simulation-driven experiments meant to
enhance homeland defense measures and military support
to civil agencies during natural or man-made disasters.
Noble
Resolve, sponsored by USJFCOM, is an experimentation
campaign plan supporting U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM)
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.
Noble Resolve 07-2 will use intricate computer-based models
and long distance virtual connections to provide the environment
for participants to make decisions and work together as
they would in the case of a real crisis.
By using the models, no troops or emergency personnel
will actually have to deploy or respond to events, saving
money and time.
According to Army Lt. Col. Steve Smith, the military lead
for Noble Resolve 07-2, the focus of the week-long experiment,
scheduled from Aug. 20 - 24, will be to improve participants'
ability to work together in an experimental environment
approximating real world crisis.
"The ultimate goal is for the participants that are
going to be involved in Noble Resolve 07-2 to become better
internally with their mission and how it applies to homeland
defense and homeland security. So it's all geared towards
the participants and the customers and making them better
through providing them an environment to experiment inside
of," he said.
"It's
not only providing an environment for these participants
to look inward at themselves, but also by them all participating
and looking at their internal objectives, they all have
a chance to peek over the fence and
make contacts with additional folks in the network they
would actually have to work with in real crisis situations. This
makes them all better."
Noble Resolve 07-2 will bring approximately 100 people
from across the United States and abroad to develop solutions
to provide improved defense support to civil authorities
and build upon global partnerships.
In addition to NORTHCOM, USJFCOM will partner with the
state of Oregon, the U.S. Transportation Command, the Joint
Task Force Homeland Defense, located in Hawaii, and other
federal agencies such as the Dept. of Homeland Security,
the FBI and FEMA. It will also team with the Republic of
Korea, as well as other foreign liaison officers from other
countries.
Last April's Noble Resolve 07-1 held experimental scenarios
with the commonwealth of Virginia; however with Noble Resolve
07-2, the focus will be on the state of Oregon and the
Pacific theater. Smith said some of the scenarios enhancing
homeland defense will be different as well. Two of the
scenarios were developed with the help of participants.
"The
experiment scenarios that were devised here were all
based on input from the voluntary participants, so there
will
be an earthquake in Oregon and a tsunami in Hawaii," he
said.
Smith
said another difference is that Noble Resolve 07-1 worked
in conjunction with a state event, while Noble
Resolve
07-2 will be its own event.
"It is not in conjunction with an ongoing event,
whereas Noble Resolve 07-1 was piggy-backing on top of
a Virginia training exercise," he said. "This
one is more of a stand-alone event with all of the participants
so there's no ongoing exercise or experiment that we're
overlaid on."
Bud Hay, director of the experimentation group at USJFCOM's
Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate (J9),
said the experiment this month has additional advantages,
based off of the success of the experiment in April.
"One of the things that's different is that, although
the game was distributed to the commonwealth of Virginia's
fusion center last time, this is a much bigger distribution
and we will integrate the modeling and simulation tools
more deeply into game play. We're also working closer with
Dept. of Homeland Security and OSD [Office of the Secretary
of Defense] Office of Homeland Defense than we did last
time. These are wonderful developments created by the success
of the first experiment," said Hay.
He
said the primary USJFCOM role for the experiment, like
the last one, will be to provide some of the command's
unique modeling and simulation (M&S) tools to help
create the scenarios. This will take place from the Joint
Futures Lab located in Suffolk, Va.
Smith said participants will also be able to build upon
the new partnerships that were formed.
"The networks that were formed as a result of voluntarily
participating in this experiment can be leveraged in the
future to keep working on homeland defense issues as they
come up," he said.
With the success of Noble Resolve so far, Hay said the
plan is to make it an annual event.
"Noble
Resolve 07-1 was such a success in allowing state, local
and international folks to talk to each other
and share information and ideas that the Dept. of Homeland
Security and OSD's Office of Homeland Defense, NORTHCOM
and USJFCOM decided to make it into a series. This is
the second game in that series," he said. "We
look to have two experiments per year, one always being
here with the commonwealth, and the other one broader afield.
We might also move them up to regional levels as opposed
to state levels."
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