The Department of Homeland Security announced completion of the TOPOFF 4 Command Post Exercise, a congressionally mandated counterterrorism exercise for top officials. The exercise, which took place from June 19–22, is a multifaceted effort to prevent and respond to a simulated terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction.

The exercise was conducted in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Forward Challenge 2006, which involved a test of federal continuity of operations plans, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Marble Challenge 06–02 exercise, which involved a law enforcement WMD response. TOPOFF command post exercise focused on senior officials’ abilities to respond to a complex and demanding scenario, in accordance with the National Response Plan and National Incident Management System.

“[The command post exercise] provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen the nation’s capacity for effective, coordinated action to address terrorist threats and major disasters,” said DHS Under Secretary for Preparedness George Foresman. “Although the scenario is simulated, the risk is real. Every TOPOFF exercise builds on real-world and exercise experiences and lessons learned to further enhance our national preparedness.”

More than 4,000 federal, state, local and tribal senior officials and managers from 85 organizations participated in the exercise. Command post exercises are real-time, functional assessments of communications, planning and decision-making capabilities in a time of crisis. Although emergency response centers were activated as part of the exercise, limited numbers of response personnel were deployed into the field.

Each TOPOFF involves a two-year cycle of planning, seminars, exercises and training activities leading to a command post exercise in the first year and a full-scale exercise in the second.

As the first exercise in the TOPOFF 4 exercise cycle, the command post exercise focused on the effectiveness of plans, procedures, and communication capabilities in a number of areas, including:

• Assessing the effects of implementing continuity of operations plans in the context of a WMD event;
• Validating various department and agencies’ continuity of operations plans, procedures and policies;
• Coordinating a media and public communications strategy and messaging in the context of a WMD event;
• Determining the authorities, responsibilities and capabilities of federal assets necessary to respond to a terrorist WMD incident;
• Testing the ability of command/operations/intelligence centers to share intelligence and information to maintain a common operational picture;
• Assessing the public health, medical support, mass decontamination, and mass care requirements during a terrorist WMD event; and
• Testing law enforcement’s response to a WMD event.