Monday, March 3, 2008

"Operation Quick Resolve" RI Flu Crowd Control Drill, + News

Disaster drill prepares organization for action
Emergency response team simulates crisis at Cobb Stadium
http://media.www.thehurricaneonline.com/media/storage/paper479/news/2008/03/03/News/Disaster.Drill.Prepares.Organization.For.Action-3247618.shtml

There were three dead and 31 wounded after the bleachers collapsed in Cobb Stadium last Saturday. But don't worry - this was only a test. The disaster drill was to prepare the Canes Emergency Response Team (CERT), a student-run organization whose members are prepared to assist during disasters and respond to a problem to which the police and firefighters cannot react immediately. Their ability to handle this situation was graded by professionals in different emergency fields....
During the blackout last week, city personnel were flooded with emergencies such as people being stuck in elevators. They were stretched thinner when two people were necessary to direct traffic at each intersection in the area. CERT members were able to assist and lessen the strain on the police and fire departments.Although the members of CERT knew there was going to be a drill on Saturday, they did not know what or where the situation was going to be. The members of the outgoing executive board made these plans and kept them private.Tim Queeny, a team leader for CERT, only knew an event was going to happen but admitted that this knowledge did give him a slight advantage saying, "It made me more available than I might have been."


"Operation Quick Resolve"

National Guard holds surprise training drill (RI)

CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) -- The Rhode Island National Guard held a surprise training drill to test how it would respond to quick activation by the governor in an emergency.
More than 85 members of the Army and Air National Guard were awakened at about 4 a.m. yesterday and ordered to report to Camp Fogarty in East Greenwich and Quonset Air National Guard Base in North Kingston.
The training exercise, "Operation Quick Resolve," was designed to test the Guard's ability to quickly alert, mobilize and deploy troops. In this case, the scenario was a massive civil disturbance during a pandemic flu scare.
Among the strategies they practiced: using less-than-lethal tactics in crowd control.

India to hold biggest ever war games close to Pakistan border http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30654&Itemid=2

Making war-games simulators is big business for Orlando division of Cubic Corp.

The technician gazes intently as she places tiny metal dots on the circuit board's microelectronic pathways. She is crafting the "brains" of a simulated machine gun that soldiers will eventually use to hone their infantry skills.It is quiet now as she works in the electronics assembly lab at Cubic Corp.'s Orlando simulation plant. But later, it will be loud, really loud, on the virtual firing range as the weapons are tested....






America's Robot Army: Are Unmanned Fighters Ready for Combat?







DARPA to iRobot: Build a LANdroid bot


Robotics company iRobot Corp. has landed an R&D contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a communications robot for the DARPA LANdroids program.
Under the contract, robotics maker iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT) is expected to develop a communications relay robot, intended to be portable and disposable. The goal of the DARPA LANdroids program is to provide robots small enough that a single soldier can carry multiple robots, which would form a communications infrastructure to support operations.
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/03/03/daily4.html

Homeland Security Update: Congress Asking Who is in Charge?http://www.rotor.com/Default.aspx?tabid=510&newsid905=58059

Fact Sheet: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Announces 6.8 Percent Increase in Fiscal Year 2009 http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77475&Itemid=9