CONCEPT PAPER Simulation Based Multi-Agency Response Training (SMART) Training programs under development by the military and federal and state emergency management agencies hold significant promise to improve the post 9/11 response to the use of weapons of mass destruction and other large scale terrorism within the United States. However, a problem remains in that most training is "stove piped" with insufficient interagency training, especially between civilian responders and the military organizations that are expected to be ready to provide military support after an incident causing mass casualties and widespread destruction. The California National Guard presents a unique opportunity for an initiative to train civilian emergency response managers and military leaders to work together in the wake of a catastrophic terrorist event. Simulation Based Multi-Agency Response Training (SMART) would leverage existing programs to expand the capabilities of civilian emergency management agencies, and improve the readiness of military units to provide military support to civil authorities, in response to a major act of terrorism within the United States. SMART would build upon the existing training capabilities of the California Office of Emergency Services and the California National Guard in order to improve regional, join, and interagency operations to manage the consequences of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic terrorist incidents. This program would complement the California Terrorism Response Plan and the evolving Homeland Security by providing critical training necessary for senior emergency managers to develop plans and provide seamless and frictionless cooperation between the civilian response and the support provided by the military. Provided with adequate funding, SMART would leverage the National Guard's Joint Training and Experimentation Program (JTEP) by providing a "jump start" to link military and civilian training subjects, methods, and technologies.1 Within the framework of the Standardized Emergency Management System, SMART will train civilian and military leaders to effectively plan for and manage the consequences of a catastrophic terrorist attack. The proposed program would initially focus on training between the California National Guard, the California Office of Emergency Services, and appropriate local government agencies. As the program develops, it could be readily expanded to other states and to include the integration of federal agencies. In addition to taking advantage of existing training systems such as computer modeling and simulation, SMART would be unique in its use of methods and systems currently used to rain senior officers in the Military Decision Making Process and the command and control of complex operations. The program would be comprehensive in nature, not only addressing the California National Guard's training requirements for response to terrorism incidents, but also interagency response training at the local, state, and federal levels. Although the development of the program would focus on California, in later phases the program would expand to nation wide. The cornerstone of SMART would be a computer simulation to drive a series of seminars culminating with an interagency emergency operations center exercise. Similar to military command post exercises and the Army's Battle Command Training Program, the Interagency Response Exercise (IRE) would focus on county level jurisdictions and test the ability of managers to develop effective response plans and to execute those plans in response to a catastrophe. Prior to the IRE, a series of executive seminars would provide a forum to develop an understanding of the capabilities of civilian agencies and military resources, consider the lessons gleaned from previous disaster, and to exchange ideas among emergency response experts. The executive seminars and IRE will provide a discovery learning experience that will be both exportable to local jurisdictions and affordable. At the conclusion of each series of seminars and the IRE, emergency managers will be provided copies of the exercise simulation software and supporting documentation that will enable them to conduct their own exercises to sustain the management and decision making skills developed through SMART. Using existing military training simulations to avoid the cost of new software and specialized hardware, SMART will leverage the military's current training capabilities especially the emerging capability for PC based simulations. The training model follows the one used to teach decision making to Army leaders. The sequence of events begins with development of the training objectives by the participating jurisdictions during an initial planning conference. These first steps lay the foundation for a series of training events that will be tailored to meet the needs of each particular training audience, to include all levels of leadership command and from state level emergency operations centers to the incident command on-the-scene. Initial simulation support for this training will capitalize on existing high resolution simulation models available to the National Guard through other Department of Defense agencies and programs such as the Joint Training and Experimentation Program. The initial phase of SMART program would include an analysis of existing simulations to determine which would be most suitable for modeling domestic emergency response operations. Many candidates will be considered. These models provide simulation resolution and database capabilities sufficient to represent events and actions to the individual actor level, allowing the training audience to realistically test emergency response plans. Similar in format to the Army's program for training senior leaders to develop plans and make rapid decisions, SMART will use a Senior Mentor to participate in seminars and provide mentoring during the development of response plans and the IRE. This approach has been shown to yield significant enhanced leaning within Army training programs. Participants learn through working with their colleagues, peers and supervisors; seminar discussions of military and civilian agency capabilities and procedures, and observations of the results when their plans are tested via the IRE, and by seminar discussions facilitated by the Senior Mentor. In brief, SMART and the culminating IRE will allow emergency managers to develop and review their response plans, exercise those plans via computer simulation, and make adjustments as necessary. The comprehensive AAR is a critical learning methodology. It will include a formalized computer assisted exercise "replay" and assessment event that reinforces the learning experience and enables discovery learning. By reviewing the results of the exercise in detail, participants can assess the validity of their plans, policies, and operating procedures to determine whether changes are necessary. As a result of the discovery learning experience, IRE participants have opportunities to practice and rehearse their roles through a variety of situations. The IRE also provides excellent training and experience in coordinating internal agency and interagency plans prior to, and activities during, an emergency. 1The Joint Training and Experimentation Program (JTEP) is a congressionally directed National Guard Bureau program managed by the California National Guard. JTEP will link existing military training assets to create virtual, constructive, live training capability. The intent of the program is to initially develop this capability for Army ground units, then expand to joint operations and military support to civil authorities in the out years. BG L. Antonetti CAJS 9/4/2003 BACK TO TOP