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Issue No. 2015--2 June 2015Air Land Sea Application (ALSA) Center

A Look at Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA)

10 Years After Katrina

ALSB 2015-2 2

ALSA Staff

Director COL John L. Smith, USA

Deputy Director LTC Dana L. Smith, USA

Bulletin EditorLCDR Albert Head III, USN

EditorMs. Patricia Radcliffe, Civilian, USAF

Layout/IllustrationMs. Laura Caswell, Civilian, USN

LTC Blake Keil, USA

Purpose: The ALSA Center publishes the ALSB three times a year. ALSA is a multi-Service Department of

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US Navy Chief Aviation Warfare Systems Operator Scott Pierce, a search and rescue swim-mer assigned to the “Emerald Knights” of Helicopter Anti-Sub-marine Squadron Seven Five (HS-75), looks out from the cabin of an SH-60 Seahawk helicop-

streets caused by Hurricane Katrina on September 7, 2005. (Photo by PH3 Class Kristopher Wilson, USN)

CONTENTSDirector’s Comments...........................................................3

FEATURE ARTICLES

ALSA Looks at Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina..................................................................................4

“The Coin of the Realm”: the Importance of Collective Exercises in the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) Enterprise..............................................................7

A Proposal for Title 10 Command and Control for Complex Catastrophes......................................................12

Improving Military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Defense Support to Civil Law Enforcement Authorities through Interoperability Training...................................16

The Naval Services and Maritime DSCA are Operation-ally Relevant and Ready....................................................20

Developing Future Incident Commanders and Defense Coordinating Officers........................................................24

IN HOUSE

Current ALSA MTTP Publications.................................26Future Air Land Sea Bulletins..........................................29ALSA Organization and Joint Working Groups............30ALSA Mission and Voting JASC Members....................31Online Access to ALSA Products....................................31

IMPROVING MILITARY EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL (EOD) DEFENSE SUPPORT TO CIVIL LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES THROUGH INTEROPERABILITY TRAINING

The Salem County Bomb Squad, Oregon State Police, and the 710th Ordnance Company, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washing-ton, prepare for a buried cache scenario during 2014 Raven’s Challenge 2014 in Salem, Oregon. (Photo by Dave Brennan Phillips)

By LCDR Ken Martin, USN, (Retired)  

INTRODUCTION The deadly Boston Marathon at-

tacks in 2013 emphasized the real andpresent danger of homegrown violentextremists using improvised explosivedevices (IEDs). Concerns over terroristattacks in the United States (US) havebeen renewed following the rapid suc-cesses of the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria (ISIS), whose leadership calls forIED attacks in the US.  

The ability to respond to IED at-tacks has improved considerably since 9/11. Public safety bomb squads (PS-BSs) have improved capability and ca-pacity in counter-improvised explosivedevice (C-IED) response through growth,training, and equipment. Despite theseimprovements, the majority of PSBSs

remain full-time law enforcement offi- cers with minimal time for training to maintain bomb squad proficiency.  

Military EOD personnel gainedunprecedented experience against IEDsin large quantities and complexity fromoperations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cur-rently, the US EOD force is extremelywell trained, equipped, and experiencedto respond to IEDs. The Department ofDefense’s role in homeland defense andcivil support is codified in policy anddoctrine. However, much work needs tobe done to formally enable partnershipsand schedule training between militaryEOD and PSBSs. Military EOD’s and PS-BSs’ critical contributions to each otherthrough sharing tactics, techniques,and procedures (TTP), lessons learned,and experience remain largely ad hocand occur at the local level.

Military EOD’s and PSBSs’ criti- cal contributions to each other through shar- ing TTP, lessons learned and experience remain largely ad hoc and occur at the local l evel.

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Training between military EOD and PSBS enables knowledge shar-ing and effective response when EODis called for operational support. Jointtraining also imparts and preservesmany of the hard-learned lessons ofIraq and Afghanistan. Local-level PSBSand EOD leaders recognize the needfor interoperability training and haveformed partnerships to regularly con-duct collaborative training and exercis-es. Exercises are particularly valuablebecause they allow leaders to identifydoctrinal, training, and equipment is-sues. For two years, an interoperabilitytraining exercise, Raven’s Challenge,was sponsored by the Army and exe-cuted and organized by the Bureau ofAlcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explo-sives (ATF). Raven’s Challenge directlycontributes to EOD and PSBS interop-erability and draws attention to gapsand improvements that need to be ad-dressed for domestic-IED operationson land and in maritime environments.

• Southwest: Arizona National Guard Base Florence, near Phoenix, Arizona.

 

• Southeast: National Center for Ex-plosive Training and Research, Red-stone Arsenal, Alabama.

 

• Northeast: National Capital Region,Washington, DC.

 

Participants from more than 79 state and local PSBSs and 17 mili-tary EOD Army, Navy, Air Force, Ma-rine Corps, and Army and Air NationalGuard units, representing 12 statesand 5 Federal Emergency ManagementAgency regions, teamed up for the ex-ercise. International military and lawenforcement partners also attended,with participants from Australia, Can-ada, United Kingdom, Mexico, and theBahamas. Nearly 1,000 EOD, PSBS,intelligence specialists, and explosivedetection K-9 handlers, across mul-tiple departments and agencies at thefederal, state, and local levels partici-pated.  

The planning team designed thetraining scenarios to observe variouscapabilities during military EOD sup-port of civilian law enforcement agen-cies during an interrelated series of do-mestic IED attacks throughout the US.The exercise objectives were:

RAVEN’S CHALLENGE Raven’s Challenge is a joint,

interagency, intergovernmental, andmultinational C-IED exercise. The ex- ercise uses the National Response

Incidentplanning

responses

Framework Management

and National System for

and executing emergency • Determine interoperability among to IED events within the structure of

the Incident Command System (ICS).At the tactical level, Raven’s Challengeprovides a setting for military EODand PSBS to explore capability areasthrough realistic, high-intensity sce-narios. Units share TTP and lessonslearned and forge relationships thatenhance interagency operations dur-ing an actual IED response at local, re-gional, or national levels.  

Raven’s Challenge 2014 encompassedfour regions across the continental US

EOD, PSBS, ATF, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

 

• Provide live fire energetic EOD tools collective unit level training.

Raven’s Challenge provides a set- ting for military EOD and PSBS to explore capabil- ity areas through realistic, high-in- tensity scenarios.

• Make post-render-safe and blast assessments, carry out

post- weap-

ons technical intelligence operations (EOD), and perform bomb forensics.

 

• Share technical intelligence and in-formation from incident sites throughbomb management centers to theFBI’s Strategic Information and Op-eration Center (SIOC), across first re-sponder networks at the local, state,and federal levels.

 

• Execute mass transit and critical in-frastructure incident response.

with training areas places.  

• Northwest: Satsop opment Park near

in the following

Business Devel- Elma, Washing-

ton and maritime sites at the Ports of Olympia and Tacoma, Washington.

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• Execute US Navy EOD and PSBS op- erations in the maritime environment (above and below waterline).

 

• Perform EOD and PSBS incident re-sponse with electronic countermea-sures and counter radio controlledIED electronic warfare.

 

The exercise scenarios werelinked across the four geographic re-gions through IED components, othermaterials, and evidence found at thescene. The exercise team establishedBomb Management Centers (BMCs)at each training site for the first time.The BMC served as the local incidentcommand and control center as well asa conduit to the local, state, regional,and national levels in the absence of adesignated incident commander (IC), towhom the BMC would be subordinateduring an actual event. The primaryfunction of the BMC is to manage (op-erationally) response assets for the ICand request additional resources, ifneeded. During an event large enoughto require a BMC, integrating EOD andPSBS and other responders throughthe BMC allows for efficient operations.  

During Raven’s Challenge, EOD and PSBS teams were dispatched from

the BMC and reported the details of their responses that included providingmaterials and evidence. All responseinformation was entered into a web-based portal. Responses that met cer-tain criteria were relayed to the SIOCat FBI headquarters to be integratedat the national level. Personnel fromthe National Explosives Task Forcemanned the SIOC, analyzed all infor-mation provided by the BMCs in eachregion, and provided a daily summaryto the BMCs to be further disseminatedback to each local area. Combined mil-itary EOD and PSBS teams respond-ed to a variety of scenarios includingvehicle-borne IEDs, post-blast investi-gations, a buried cache of weapons, ahostage with a collar IED, a mass tran-sit bombing with mass casualties, andan improvised grenade factory.  

The positive outcomes of Raven’sChallenge demonstrate when militaryEOD and PSBS respond together, theyquickly work through organizationaland TTP differences to integrate effec-tively. PSBS and military EOD teamswho had working relationships prior tothe exercise performed at much higherlevels of proficiency than those teamsthat did not. As in Boston, an existing

... when military EOD and PSBS respond togeth- er, they quickly work through organizational and TTP differ- ences to inte- grate effectively.

First responders from the Washington State Police and 710th Ordnance Company assist an unidentified volunteer “victim” with simulated injuries from an improvised explosive device in a bus explosion exercise during the 2014 Raven’s Challenge in Seattle, Washington, 28 June,2014. (Photo by Certified Explosives Specialist David Johnsen)

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working relationship with local author- ities led to immediate and seamlessintegration for military EOD personnelwho supported local authorities.

CONCLUSION Lessons learned from the ter-

rorist IED attacks during the BostonMarathon of 2013 indicate prior train-ing and exercises for first respondersdirectly contributed to their highlysuccessful level of response (UnitedStates Senate, Committee on Home-land Security and Government Affairs, 2013). The importance of participationin interoperability training is especiallytrue for specialized support to ensure afluid response during an actual, signif-icant event. Large scale, national-levelinteroperability exercises, such as Ra-ven’s Challenge, provide military EODand PSBS an opportunity to train sideby side, share TTP, and exchange les-sons learned. Additionally, interopera-bility training helps maintain the profi-ciency of military EOD and PSBS whilebuilding formal partnerships that facil-itate essential knowledge transfer andsharing.  

Increased resourcing and sup-port of interoperability training exer-cises for PSBS and military EOD willcontribute to an even greater responsecapability within the US and foster in-creased interoperability when militaryEOD supports PSBS and other civil lawenforcement authorities.

Lessons learned from the terrorist IED attacks during the Boston Mara- thon of 2013 indi- cate prior training and exercises for first responders directly contribut- ed to their highly successful level of response.

LESSON LEARNED Interoperability of military EOD

and PSBS communications systemsremains a problem usually overcomeby PSBS radios being issued to militaryEOD.  

Military EOD units respondin tactical armored vehicles unsuit-able for domestic civil support andresponse. For example, the Air ForceBase Support emergency response ve-hicle (BSERV) provides a more func-tional platform than other military ar-mored vehicles because it blends intothe domestic operational environment.The BSERV is similar to a civil, com-mercial vehicle used by law enforce-ment and is large enough to hold allrequired equipment.  

The following are other lessonsencountered during Raven’s Challenge.  

• Military EOD and PSBS units do notpossess a lightweight robotics sys-tem. This would provide a remote ca-pability in unique EOD operationalenvironments, such as inside a masstransit vehicle and in areas that areinaccessible by response vehicles.

 

• Military EOD and PSBS require ad-ditional advanced homemade explo-sives proficiency and interoperabilitytraining.

 

• Military EOD and PSBS require addi-tional proficiency and interoperabil-ity training in proper evidence andforensic material collection.

References

United States Senate, Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. 

One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Ses‐ sion (2013). Lessons Learned From the Boston Marathon. Retrieved 15 November 2014 from https://www.fema.gov/media‐library/assets/docu‐ ments/33747 

• •Interoperability training allows Ken Martin is an Associate with R3 Strategic Support Group. He retiredfrom the US Navy in 2013 after morethan 23 years of service as an explo-sive ordnance disposal officer and fleetdiver. He holds a Master’s in TerroristOperations and Finance from theNaval Postgraduate School.

PSBS and military EOD the oppor- tunity to see each other’s equipment;understand differences in tacticalapproaches to problems; identifystrengths and weaknesses; and, mostimportantly, identify capability areasthat need further improvement.

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