US concludes Ambitious Guardian 2014 Table Top Exercise

Joint Forces Headquarters-National Capital Region (JFHQ-NCR) personnel have conducted Ambitious Guardian 2014 Table Top Exercise (TTX) alongside District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia National Guards and civilian emergency managers at Washington Navy Yard.

The exercise has been designed to enhance ability of regional response plans in the case of a catastrophic incident affecting the metro area.

During the two-day TTX, an open forum to discuss decision-making between active duty and national guard leaders and federal and state emergency management agencies has been carried out in the event of a 6.5-magnitude earthquake causing major infrastructure damage across the greater metro.

Naval District Washington Joint Operations and Plans navy lieutenant Russell Cude said the exercise allows participants to demonstrate their capabilities and pre-planned responses while enhancing response framework during an exercise scenario to better prepared in case an actual event ever occurs.

"Ambitious Guardian 14 TTX is the result of a DoD initiative directing Joint Forces Headquarter-National Capital Region to conduct a table-top, or discussion-based, exercise to examine command relationships in the National Capital Region," Cude added.

More than 150 military leaders and civilian agency members performed command and control responses to help identify problems and solutions as part of the drill which involved missions ranging from initial and sustained incident responses to cascading effects and transition to recovery.

"The exercise is important because between D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, there are multiple commanders that are responsible for their own individual interests, and this exercise will emphasize response coordination, resource integration and allocation, and problem identification and resolution in order to help develop or expand each agency’s existing procedures where necessary," Cude continued.