The Civil Support Team mission is to support civil authorities at a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives (CBRNE) incident site by identifying CBRNE agents/substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures and assisting with requests for additional support. CSTs are a critical component of the response plans for any large scale disasters.

The CSTT builds upon traditional methods of WMD training to deliver complex information to a diverse, geographically dispersed audience in a short period of time. It also provides an opportunity to provide practical, hands-on experience in situations that can not easily be practiced safely using real scenarios while ensuring the essential skills are sustained once they are attained by an individual or team. CST training management is an integral component of this trainer that ensures each CST is proficient and ready to operate in response to large scale disasters.

The TC3 simulation utilizes game-engine based simulations and state-of-the-art instructional development strategies to support a student’s need to master a variety of competencies and to apply them in unique situations. The simulation immerses students into scenario-driven events to teach and evaluate a student’s knowledge regarding the essential tactics, techniques and procedures required to successfully perform as an Army combat medic. Important tasks include the ability to assess casualties, perform triage, provide initial treatment, and prepare a casualty for evacuation under battlefield conditions.

The TC3 simulation presents an opportunity to help train Combat Lifesavers. The Army’s intent is to have every second soldier trained as a Combat Lifesaver to perform first aid on casualties prior to the arrival of the medic. Further, in 2007, a new first-aid curriculum centered on TC3 was incorporated into the basic training of all Army’s recruits (approximately 80,000 soldiers). This TC3 training focuses on the first critical minutes after a soldier is wounded when a Combat Medic or CLS may not be available.

The US-Nexus is based on the concept of a centralized server that delivers instructional and technical content to emergency response personnel over a network, thus enabling this content to be widely distributed to anyone with a web browser and access to the system. The US-Nexus is a platform that combines learning management services, distributed simulations and knowledge management while facilitating a range of collaborative technologies to allow both public and private communication between individuals and groups. This capability dramatically enhances the ability of the local, state and federal government to react effectively to domestic contingencies by providing the computational, informational and virtual infrastructure to support both operational and preparedness activities for a wide range of contingencies including all scenarios outlined in the National Response Plan.

While the National Guard Bureau is the lead agency for the US-Nexus, the total requirements and capabilities were developed in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and other federal agencies concerned with emergency preparedness and response.  The overall goal of this program is to improve the effectiveness of our National Incident Management System.

One difficulty in the OneTESS environment is the depiction of human casualties and other patient status indicators. To address this challenge, ECS is developing the OneTESS Mobile Medic Application (MMA) that is helping integrate existing Combat Casualty Care capabilities and technologies into the OneTESS environment. The MMA is bridging the gap between live and virtual environments by presenting realistic casualty information to medical personnel and allowing them to perform medical treatments and interventions as needed on casualty wounds caused by OneTESS munitions.

The MMA uses OneTESS casualty information and wound types to initiate simulated casualty scenarios on a mobile computing device that communicates updated patient status and all treatment decisions back into the OneTESS environment. One key component of the MMA is the blend of treatment elements available within the simulated scenario with the treatment elements that are available within a live OneTESS training exercise to provide different combinations of live to virtual medical treatment. This treatment may occur on the “live casualty” (applying a tourniquet or using a simulated auto-injector on a victim) or within the MMA scenario (reading vitals and symptoms, performing a tracheotomy).

On the PC, there is a single architecture, one CPU family and two operating systems to worry about. In embedded devices however, the total number of different hardware/software combinations is huge. This means that supporting a solution in several devices requires a separate integration and support process. With funding from the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), ECS began developing the “Unified Framework for Mobile Learning Technologies” to allow developers to build content once and deliver it on a desktop PC, a tablet PC, a PDA and cell phone. Its standards-based architecture promotes reusability and allows for faster development times, lower development costs and increased performance on modestly powered devices. This architecture also provides a framework of standards so that future innovation may be incorporated into the application, preserving its inter-operability and portability for years into the future.

Simmod output is typically displayed in a 2D window that composites aircraft over a CAD representation of the airport. ECS developed a 3D visualization component that allows Simmod users to interactively navigate within the simulation model. Simmod uses a node-link structure to simulate the movement of individual aircraft along airspace routes, runways, taxiways and gates. The ECS tool imports 3D models of an airport and correlates the node-link coordinates from Simmod into the 3D model. It then imports the Simmod log files to accurately animate aircraft and display the same Simmod information in a 3D interactive environment.

ECS developed a visualization component for the INM that allows users to interactively view a 3D model of the airport and its surrounding terrain while providing the ability to toggle various INM contours on and off for discussion. This tool was used extensively at the Miami International Airport during the design process of a new runway to determine the impact on the surrounding community.This tool was also used in public hearings to allow members of the community to visualize the impact of the new runway.

The application incorporates state-of-the-art distance learning technologies with doctrinally accurate training courseware to produce a SCORM-compliant training application that provides a deliberate focus on training objectives within a realistic scenario set up to provide cues and conditions that support a planned sequence of task performance. It uses complex 3D simulations to emphasize proper security deployment and response procedures, the principles of access control and perimeter security, bomb threat and search procedures, proper reporting and communication procedures and etiquette. Scenarios are comprised of different types of critical checkpoint incidents and their effects on the population and transportation infrastructure surrounding the Capitol complex.