From 2007 through 2011, CAW developed and conducted a series of training and exercise events under a Congressional program, in partnership with the Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Commonwealth of Virginia, Office of Commonwealth Preparedness. The East Coast Initiative (ECI) was designed to enhance the capabilities to coordinate an integrated regional response to a maritime terrorist attack involving the use of weapons of mass destruction, for the States of Maine and Virginia. The ECI program was a multi-phase and cyclical effort to improve coordination and emergency response and management capabilities following an incident in the maritime environment of the East Coast through the following activities: ECI-Maine 2007/Waldo Responder was the Maine component of the initiative and focused on Maine’s detection, interdiction, and response capabilities in order to increase the security of Maine’s critical military assets, ports, commercial fishing, shipping, and ferry services. The Waldo Responder 2007 exercise consisted of a Unified Command tabletop and three-day full-scale exercise, including participation of 300 personnel from 50 agencies operating at 11 venues, during which responders evaluated their response plans and capabilities following a simulated terrorist attack aboard a ship, using a chemical weapons to create a mass casualty incident. ECI-Virginia 2007 was the first in a three-phase program designed to enhance the detection, interdiction, and response capabilities in order to increase the security of Virginia’s critical military assets, defense industrial assets and maritime environment, including its ports, commercial shipping, and other critical infrastructure. ECI-Virginia 2007 was conducted as a tabletop exercise that focused on the role of intelligence flow and information sharing between federal agencies and the state. ECI-Virginia 2008 was a functional exercise that built upon the lessons learned from the 2007 tabletop exercise, as part of a three-phase progression towards a full-scale exercise. ECI-Virginia 2008 tested the ability of a wide variety of stakeholders, including the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Virginia National Guard, Virginia Fusion Center, Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center, and other public and private entity stakeholders, to respond to and mitigate a major transportation security incident. Hampton Roads Full-Scale Exercise (HRFSE) 2011 represents the culmination of the East Coast Initiative in the exercise of emergency management plans, systems, and response capabilities of local ,state, and regional agencies in the maritime domain. This three-day full-scale exercise was designed to demonstrate and improve communication and coordination between Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Virginia State, and local law enforcement and first response agencies following a series of coordinated attacks against the nation’s critical defense and industrial infrastructure in the Hampton Roads area.

In June and July of 2010, CAW conducted a series of training and exercise events for the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate to develop and evaluate the performance of its Integrated Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Explosives (ICBRNE) Detection Demonstration Program. Training and exercise events were designed to integrate the ICBRNE system into the operational and strategic level of decision-making and allow response organizations in the Los Angeles Operational Area to evaluate its effectiveness in distributing real-time environmental monitoring data from field sensors to enhance situational awareness and decision-making. Operation Golden Phoenix (OGP) 2010 was organized into a series of training and exercise events to enhance participants’ understanding of the effects of a nuclear detonation in their area of responsibility, reinforce appropriate response actions and critical information requirements and, ultimately, assess the regional response capability of regional response organizations and the integration of the ICBRNE system. OGP events included participation by almost 800 participants from 133 separate agencies during a policy-level tabletop exercise, a focused training event for Los Angeles County Department Emergency Coordinators, four training seminars for local governments, an Executive Workshop for Los Angeles County officials, a live demonstration of the ICBRNE system, an integrated functional exercise, and an Area Command advanced tabletop exercise.

In 2010, CAW collaborated with Hawaiya Technologies to determine requirements for the development, design, planning, preparation, analysis, and continuous process improvements of a Pacific-based Regional Homeland Security Center. CAW provided subject matter expertise in the areas of disaster management and homeland security, researched and evaluated current capabilities, and provided recommendations to improve current technologies used in development of situational awareness, communications, and command and control systems.

In 2009, CAW partnered with HazTech Systems, Inc. and the Bradbury Institute to conduct research and development of standardized processes and algorithms to be used in the identification and characterization of hazardous materials. Using the HazCat Hazardous Materials Biological and Chemical Identification System, a Standardized First Response Sequence was developed with the objective of implementation into a requirements-driven and metrics-based training, education, and evaluation program for the Department of Homeland Security.

In May of 2009, CAW partnered with the InfraGard Los Angeles Chapter and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to develop and conduct the School Terrorism Awareness and Response Exercise (STAR). STAR Focused on a school takeover and hostage scenario perpetrated by a little known, but well equipped terrorist group that infiltrated a school while it was in session. During the training portion of STAR, seminars on terrorism and school violence were conducted by recognized subject matter experts for law enforcement, educators, and public information officers. The response phase of the exercise included the establishment of an incident command post, rescue of an injured officer, gathering of intelligence, and tactical hostage rescue operations, with seminar participants playing the roles of the students and faculty hostages.

In 2009, CAW conducted a series of training and workshop events for the Department of Homeland Security, in partnership with the California Homeland Security Consortium (CHSC), to examine the communication and information flow processes between local, state, and federal government agencies, and the private sector, in response to a food contamination incident. The CHSC Agroterrorism Response Exercise (CARE) was designed to assist local government and public safety organizations, and growers and shippers in Monterey County recognize threats and identify triggers prior to an agroterrorism incident; and validate existing emergency response plans and procedures following an agroterrorism incident. In October of 2009, a workshop was conducted for the Monterey County Agricultural Emergency Response Network to facilitate development, implementation, and coordination of the Network’s concept of operations and response protocols to provide effective domestic incident management in support of the agricultural community. This workshop was preceded by a series of orientation visits to local growing, packaging, and shipping facilities to provide government and public safety representatives with an understanding of operations, logistics, safety, and security concerns within private sector operations.

In August of 2009, CAW partnered with the Los Angeles Operational Area Alliance and the Area D Disaster Management Area Coordinator to develop and conduct the Path of Danger 2009 Mass Evacuation Tabletop Exercise and Workshop. The Path of Danger event was focused on discussion and utilization of planning tools and resources to manage a mass evacuation emergency scenario. During the exercise, 115 participants from 35 different local, state, and federal government, and non-government organizations used the Los Angeles Operational Area Mass Evacuation Process Guide and Mass Evacuation Annex Template to validate its use in planning the mass evacuation of a portion of Los Angeles County threatened by a severe wildfire

From April through September of 2008, CAW partnered with U.S. Coast Guard Sector Seattle and the Port of Seattle Police Department to develop and conduct a series of training and exercise events to validate the preparedness of the Puget Sound region to respond to a major incident, such as a marine casualty or mass casualty. The Marine Tactical and Rescue Operations (MTARO) exercise was designed to evaluate the ability of the participants to communicate, coordinate, and operate within the Incident Command System to return the damaged transportation system to normal operations. This was accomplished through a series of events that included a preparatory tabletop and command post exercise, a full-scale exercise, a law enforcement vehicle tactical recovery, a U.S. Coast Guard maritime rescue operation, and a recovery tabletop exercise.

In May of 2008, CAW partnered with the InfraGard Los Angeles Chapter and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to develop and conduct the Cyber Attack and Detection Response Exercise (CADRE). CADRE focused on the potential vulnerabilities and consequences of a cyber-terrorist attack on key sectors of America’s critical infrastructure. CADRE was delivered as an enhanced tabletop exercise that used a wargame architecture to integrate local, state, and federal law enforcement and emergency response agencies with representatives from the private sector to address issues pertaining to terrorism-related attacks directed at the information and control system infrastructure for critical energy systems, resulting in widespread power outages throughout the state.

From 2006 through 2008, CAW partnered with the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service’s Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS) to develop and conduct a series of roundtable discussions with the objective of generating frank and open intellectual discussions among senior-level members from the executive, legislative, military, and academic communities on vital issues of national security. 2006: In December of 2006, CAW and CPASS conducted a roundtable that focused on “Insurgency and Iraq.” The roundtable consisted of two panel discussions by subject matter experts in insurgency and fourth-generation warfare, and the specific situation of insurgency in Iraq following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. 2007: In October of 2007, CAW and CPASS conducted a roundtable that focused on “Meeting the Challenge of an Emerging China.” The roundtable consisted of three panel discussions – the first focused on China’s Security Strategy, the second examined China’s Military Effectiveness, and the third discussed effective U.S. Policy Response. 2008: In April of 2008, CAW and CPASS conducted a roundtable that focused on “The Horn of Africa and Terrorism.” The roundtable consisted of two panel discussions that examined the phenomenon of terrorism in the Horn of Africa region, a case study of the bombing of the USS Cole, and a discussion of effective U.S. policy and military responses to the threat of terrorism in the region. The event concluded with an address by the Commander for the U.S. Navy’s Center for Expeditionary Counter-terrorism Operations. In October of 2008, CAW and CPASS partnered with Washington Headquarters Services to conduct a roundtable discussion that focused on “Facilities Preparedness in the National Capital Region.” During the discussion, participants from 25 local, state, and federal organizations evaluated strategic and operational level issues surrounding preparing for and responding to a large attack or disaster occurring in the National Capital Region.

From 2004 through 2008, CAW developed and conducted a series of training and exercise events under a Congressional program to support Homeland Defense and Homeland Security activities. The Asymmetric Warfare Initiative (AWI)-North program was developed to consolidate a major part of this effort in the Pacific Northwest. The AWI-North series of events were a combination of field training, tabletop and full-scale exercises focused on activities across the interfaces of the Department of Defense, law enforcement, first responder, and command and coordination centers, especially where participants’ responsibilities crossed hierarchal, organizational, and jurisdictional boundaries. The AWI-North series was a multi-phase and cyclical effort to facilitate interagency training and experimentation; demonstration of new and innovative concepts of operation and technologies; and development of solutions to interagency integration of tactics, techniques, and procedures in the Pacific Northwest through the following activities: 2004: In August and October 2004, CAW conducted the first phase of the AWI-North program, which included a preparatory tabletop exercise followed by combined full-scale and simulation components. During the tabletop exercise, planners and participants gathered to discuss the interagency planning, communications, coordination, and processes required to respond to a complex terrorist attack in the Seattle and Tacoma area. The full-scale exercise allowed participants to put the interagency capabilities to the test against a variety of complex scenario-driven experiments, which included suspicious vessels, mass casualty incidents, destruction of critical infrastructure, and weapons of mass destruction. 2005: In December of 2005, CAW built upon the AWI-04N exercise events with a tabletop and functional exercise that reinforced implementation of the Incident Command System and prepared participants for a full-scale exercise within the next year. During the AWI-05N exercise, participants operated in their functional areas as first responders, incident commanders, unified command staff, or emergency operations center staff to communicate and coordinate field operations, simulated by real-time computer simulation, across jurisdictional and geographic borders. 2006: In May of 2006, CAW continued the AWI series with a full-scale exercise, conducted as a component of U.S. Northern Command’s Ardent Sentry 2006, which further developed the capabilities of response agencies in the Pacific Northwest to prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist activities and natural disasters. The AWI-06N exercise involved the participation of nearly 1,200 participants from 40 agencies, in a dual natural disaster and terrorism scenario. Live play at the Port of Tacoma included a hazardous materials response aboard a container terminal, interception and open-water boarding of a boat containing valuable intelligence, police SWAT operations, and the physical evacuations of a number of port terminals. A computer-simulated earthquake stimulated response actions and information-sharing relative to casualty evacuation and the destruction of critical fuel and transportation infrastructure. 2007: In July 0f 2007, AWI-07N was conducted in parallel with the Washington National Guard Exercise Evergreen Sentry 2007 and focused on terrorism in the maritime environment. The exercise consisted of several preparatory training events, followed by a series of full-scale exercises that combined live and simulated components, and concluded with a tabletop exercise that focused on a transition to the recovery phase of operations. AWI-07N included five major exercise events, which incorporated overlapping and inter-related terrorist-initiated crises: the hijacking of the Pierce County Anderson Island ferry in the Puget Sound, an RPG and small arms attack at the Port of Tacoma, a terrorist attack on the Navy fuel farm at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, an Alien Migrant Interdiction Operation at the Port of Seattle, and a subsequent civil disturbance at U.S. Coast Guard Station Seattle. 2008: In September of 2008, a modified tabletop exercise was conducted to enable participating agencies to take a step back from the complexity of previous AWI-series exercise, close identified gaps, and allow “lessons observed” to become “lessons learned.” AWI-08N was conducted in the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center and simulated the detonation of a radiological dispersal device, prompting activation of the port area evacuation plans. During the exercise, response agencies considered citizen evacuation and shelter-in-place, critical infrastructure protection, weapons of mass destruction and hazardous materials response and decontamination, security in a hazardous environment, return to normalcy, decontamination and cleanup, and execution of a regional mutual support plan.

In July and August of 2007, CAW developed and conducted a training course and tabletop exercise for the State of Hawaii to demonstrate and evaluate Hawaii’s “Multi-Agency Response to a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Animal Emergency Plan.” During the exercise, participants validated actions in the plan against current response concepts, individual agency plans, and capabilities for a response to detection of HPAI H5N1 in both wild and domesticated birds. The exercise focused on key local emergency responder coordination, critical decisions, and the integration of external assets necessary to save lives and protect public health following detection of an animal disease in the region.

In April and May of 2006, CAW partnered with the U.S Department of Transportation’s Region X to explore the interaction of county, state, tribal, and federal agencies in preparing for and responding together to a catastrophic, naturally-occurring disaster affecting multiple states and jurisdictions. Pacific Peril involved a simulated magnitude-9.0 earthquake on the Cascadia Abduction Zone, which then caused a tsunami that devastated the coastline of the Pacific Northwest. A one-day tsunami seminar was held in April of 2006 to promote tsunami hazard preparedness, interagency response, and community awareness. In May, a series of training, tabletop and command post exercises were conducted to evaluate the transportation-related challenges faced in responding to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, the communication processes necessary to exercise command and control during an operational response, and discuss the issues, concepts, and plans pertinent to operations and regional recovery from a large-scale disaster.

In December of 2006, CAW partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to develop and conduct an exercise that addressed issues pertaining to terrorism-related intelligence. Coastal Net was designed to bring together the InfraGard Los Angeles Member Alliance; local, state, and federal law enforcement and emergency response agencies; and representatives of the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center in order to improve the understanding, two-way flow, and usefulness of terrorism-related intelligence in the Los Angeles area. The two-day event consisted of training, panel discussions, and three information-sharing exercises that led participants to consider what their actions and concerns would be if they were informed of a potential terrorist threat to Los Angeles, identify intelligence needs relative to the threat of terrorism, and develop requirements for local information-sharing and intelligence flow in future operational partnerships.

From 2003 through 2005, CAW developed and conducted a series of training and exercise events under a Congressional program to support Homeland Defense and Homeland Security activities. The Asymmetric Warfare Initiative (AWI)-South program was developed to consolidate a major part of this effort in Southern California. The AWI-South series of events were a combination of field training, tabletop and full-scale exercises focused on activities across the interfaces of the Department of Defense, law enforcement, first responder, and command and coordination centers, especially where participants’ responsibilities crossed hierarchal, organizational, and jurisdictional boundaries. The AWI-South series was a multi-phase and cyclical effort to facilitate interagency training and experimentation; demonstration of new and innovative concepts of operation and technologies; and development of solutions to interagency integration of tactics, techniques, and procedures in the Pacific Northwest through the following activities: 2003: In September and November of 2003, CAW conducted the first phase of the AWI-South program, which included two tabletop exercises and a multi-day full-scale exercise that involved a terrorist attack, using weapons of mass destruction, on the dual-purpose military and civilian Port of Hueneme. More than 500 personnel from 29 local, state, and federal agencies participated in AWI-03, which incorporated a series of overlapping terrorist-generated crises: the demolition of a toxic chemical storage tank; detonation of a radiological dispersal device (RDD); taking of hostages by terrorists; an attack on a U.S. Navy ship by small boats; and the killing of law enforcement officers and hostages. 2004: In August of 2004, nearly 1,200 personnel from 60 agencies participated in AWI-04S, conducted as a component of U.S. Northern Command’s Determined Promise 2004, which focused on terrorism in the maritime environment. AWI-04S consisted of multiple preparatory training events, followed by a complex full-scale exercise that included live and simulated components. The scenario incorporated four operational phases, during which first responders, the Los Angeles and Ventura County Incident Command staffs, the Joint Investigative Operations Center, and local and state emergency operations centers were exposed to several terrorist-generated crises. The live play involved the coordinated responses to the detonation of a RDD in the Port of Los Angeles, identification of search for additional containerized weapons, the explosion of a cargo container in Ventura County causing mass casualties, and simultaneous assaults on three suspected land and water-borne terrorist locations. 2005: In September of 2005, CAW conducted AWI-05S and Exercise Bay Shield 2005 (EBS), providing a series of multi-agency training and evaluation opportunities to develop and refine policies and procedures for a transportation security incident in a maritime terrorism scenario. EBS/AWI-05S consisted of a number of pre-exercise training events, a tabletop exercise, a command post exercise, and a surface deployment exercise. These events were set in a maritime terrorism scenario that required threat characterization, multi-agency search and rescue operations, mass decontamination operations, security in a chemically contaminated environment, flight operations, and establishment of a unified tactical incident command center.

In December of 2005, CAW developed and conducted a tabletop exercise for Hawaii State Civil Defense and the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to increase the ability of local, state, and federal agencies to respond to and recover from an act of terrorism within the Lahaina Harbor. The Ho’malu O Lahaina exercise focused on the role of the Department of Land and Natural Resources in the protection of and law enforcement within the harbor and issues related to maritime security and emergency response that might arise in a given emergency situation. Discussions were specifically designed to address interagency coordination, cooperation, and communication, awareness of jurisdictional authorities, and available response capabilities.

In October of 2005, CAW developed and conducted a command post exercise for Hawaii State Civil Defense and the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation (DOT) to address communication and notification procedures and elements of coordination, resource availability, and response in a simulated maritime terrorism environment. Pale Awa II satisfied the Area Maritime Security Plan’s annual exercise requirement and focused on a simulated agricultural terrorism event and suspicious cargo that necessitated an increase in the Maritime Security level. The objective of this exercise was to evaluate the effectiveness of the DOT response plans, focusing on the notification process and contact information. It also provided a valuable opportunity for interagency cooperation and coordination in the region.