From 2006 through the present day, CAW has partnered with Commander, Navy Installations Command to support the development and conduct of a number of exercise series that prepare the U.S. Navy and its strategic partner organizations to prepare for, deter, mitigate the consequences of, and recover from threats to the safety and security of Navy personnel, their families, and adjacent communities. As a member of the exercise planning team for the Citadel series of exercises, CAW is responsible for assisting participants in development of the overarching scenario, supporting intelligence vignettes, force protection drills, field training exercises, and recovery workshops. CAW also develops the supporting exercise documentation and a number of simulated news broadcasts that provide realism and situational awareness within the exercise environment. Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield (SC/CS) is an annual anti-terrorism exercise that includes the participation of every Navy installation in the U.S. Northern Command area of responsibility. In 2009 and 2010, SC/CS also added the participation of Navy installations in Japan, Guam, Hawaii, Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia. SC/CS focuses on the communications, coordination, and increase of security posture at Navy installations in response to suspicious activities and terrorist attacks. HURREX/Citadel Gale is the annual hurricane preparedness exercise for East Coast and Gulf Coast Navy installations and Fleet units. It is focused on making preparations for the landfall of severe hurricanes, based on standard operating procedures and detailed weather forecasts, and responding to and recovering from the effects of the storms once they have impacted and damage has been sustained. Citadel Rumble is the annual all-hazards preparedness exercise for Navy installations in the Continental United States not affected by the threat of hurricanes. This exercise series was established in 2008 to supplement HURREX/Citadel Gale and focuses on likely natural disaster threats to West Coast and Midwest regions, such as tornadoes and other severe storms, earthquakes, wildfires, and volcanic activity.

Since 2006, CAW has supported the execution of the Commander, Navy Installation Command (CNIC) Shore Response Plan with a focused training and education program on Crisis Action Planning (CAP). CAP is a derivative of the military’s Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES) that is simplified to enhance assimilation by non-military personnel and speed up the pace of planning in response to a rapidly-developing incident. CAP complements the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) used by civilian response organizations and drives critical information, communication, response actions and recovery planning in support of the commander’s mission. CAP Training has been developed for and delivered by a mobile training team to the CNIC Shore Support Center and each of the Navy’s ten Regional Operations Centers across the globe, to include primary watch standers, planners, and reserve augmentees:

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.

Since 2006, the Liberty Champion Exercise Series has supported the Crisis Action Planning (CAP) Training Series as the culminating event in Regional Operations Center (ROC) certification. Liberty Champion exercises are scenario-driven command post exercises (CPX) that focus on a specific hazard to the region under training. CAW began development and conduct of the Liberty Champion series of exercises in 2006 to certify the Continental United States (CONUS) ROCs at initial operating capability. Since then, the series has been expanded to include each ROC worldwide and is conducted at each ROC annually to recertify ROC operational capability and staff proficiency in the CAP process.

In December of 2010, CAW supported the U.S. Army’s 110th Chemical Battalion with the development and conduct of a validation exercise for their Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Explosives (CBRNE) Response Team (CRT) to conduct mock weapons of mass destruction elimination operations on clandestine chemical laboratories with explosive denial devices. Specifically, CAW provided subject matter expertise and simulated chemical weapons precursors and manufacturing materials in the establishment of a number of realistic chemical weapons labs. These simulated labs were used as target sites for the CRT during the validation exercise.

In 2009 and 2010, CAW developed and conducted training and exercise events for the U.S. Army’s 196th Infantry Brigade’s Defense Coordinating Officer (DCO) and Defense Coordinating Element (DCE). The Pacific Blue exercises focused on the role of the DCO/DCE in Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) operations in the Pacific area of responsibility following a catastrophic incident. For Pacific Blue, CAW conducted classroom training on the DSCA process, the essential tasks and standard operating procedures of the DCO/DCE in accordance with the Hawaii Catastrophic Plan and concluded with a realistic command post exercise involving a Category III hurricane scenario. The exercise served as the annual certification for the DCO/DCE team that proficiency in mission essential tasks had been maintained.

In 2010, CAW partnered with the Department of Defense’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) to study tactics used by insurgent groups and IED networks in the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan and build recommendations and best practices, providing valuable insight for U.S. policy-makers and military commanders in Afghanistan.

In May of 2010, CAW developed and conducted an academic discussion forum for the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet on maritime operations and staff processes at the Combined Maritime Operations Center (CMOC) in Morocco. CAW provided subject matter experts to mentor the CMOC staff in multinational maritime operations supporting the Commander’s strategy of enhancing theater security operations and counter-proliferation across the Mediterranean. The Navies of nineteen foreign countries, including 8 African and 11 NATO, participated in the event. Prior to the exercise phase of Phoenix Express 2010, CAW collected current tactics, techniques, and procedures and compared them against different operational scenarios to generate best practices and improve current capabilities. CAW also assisted with standardizing procedures for NATO, Multinational Coalition Navies, and US Combatant Commanders in the Europe and Africa theaters of operations.

In 2008 and 2009, CAW partnered with the U.S. Army’s 196th Infantry Brigade Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package (CERF-P Training Division to develop and conduct a series of exercises that would focus on the command and control (C2) and operational issues surrounding a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction in multiple Hawaiian harbors. The KOH exercise series was a multi-phase and cyclical effort to improve coordination and emergency response and management capabilities following a WMD attack in a Hawaiian port through the following activities: 2008: KOH 2008 served as the State of Hawaii’s annual WMD exercise and brought together local, state, and federal government response agencies and four National Guard CSTs to exercise their ability to respond to a CBRNE incident in a maritime environment. Exercise activities consisted of a tabletop exercise that familiarized participants with roles and responsibilities of diverse participating agencies, a tabletop exercise that explored the C2 issues posed by a CBRNE threat in a maritime environment, and a situational training exercise that included radiation training and shipboard operations training in personal protective equipment. 2009: KOH 2009 built upon the 2008 exercise and consisted of a field training exercise that increased the complexity of the operational environment and advanced the working relationship of the participating organizations to deal with a hazardous materials threat in a Hawaiian port.

From 2006 through 2008, CAW partnered with Joint Task Force-Homeland Defense (JTF-HD) to lead development and execution of a Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) program in support of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) for the U.S. territories and free association states in the Joint Operations Area (JOA). This team was one of four that conducted site surveys to assess emergency response procedures, local information technology, communications, intelligence, medical response capabilities and infrastructure in order to develop strategies to enhance the ability to respond and recover to incidents and “all-hazards” threats in the region. The CAW-led SMEE focused on all-hazards, terrorism and maritime security. The team conducted joint interagency seminars, tabletop, command post, and field training exercises with JOA partners based on case studies and threats specific to maritime security and associated hazards that included drug and human trafficking, terrorism, the threat of extreme storms to port operations, and other man-made or natural disasters. The JTF-HD SMEE program was a multi-phase and cyclical effort to improve coordination and emergency response and management capabilities within the JOA through the following activities: 2006: The team participated in the 2006 Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit, which focused on communication and collaboration in the Pacific area of operations. The team also coordinated exchanges at the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Site on Kwajalein in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM); and site surveys in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). 2007: The team participated in the 2007 Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit; assisted in training of Crisis Action Planning to the Regional Operations Center staff of Navy Region Marianas; participated in Pale Ma’i Lele, a Hawaii exercise that focused on the multi-agency response to a highly pathogenic avian influenza emergency; and conducted a regional Senior Leaders Conference and Unified Command Synchronization Seminar. The team also conducted a number of events and exchanges in the following locations: 2008: The team conducted training that focused on Defense Support of Civil Authorities in advance of Makani Pahili 2008, an annual hurricane response exercise, and coordinated Lightning Rescue 2008, an annual pandemic influenza preparedness and response exercise - both located in Hawaii. A follow-on effort was also coordinated in Guam to bring forward the lessons learned in Hawaii regarding pandemic influenza. The team also conducted a number of events and exchanges in the following locations:

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.

In April of 2005, CAW conducted Unified Independence (UI) 2005 for the California National Guard’s 9th Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Civil Support Team (CST) in order to improve coordination between response agencies in responding to and investigating a terrorist attack in a maritime environment involving the use of WMD. UI-05 brought together over 300 participants from local, state, and federal government agencies to respond to a simulated chemical release by terrorists within one of our nation’s ports. This six-hour exercise required participants to establish a command structure and operational response that could effectively characterize threat explosives and WMD agents, coordinate multi-agency search and rescue, treat and decontaminate injured patients, conduct law enforcement and security operations in a chemically contaminated environment, and fly simulated chemical agents from the incident site to remote laboratories.