'Ardent Sentry' Testing U.S., Canadian Crisis Response

'Ardent Sentry' Testing U.S., Canadian Crisis Response
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/20060510_5085.html

{EXCERPT} , By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 - More than 5,000 U.S. and Canadian
servicemembers are working with authorities in five U.S. states and
two Canadian provinces to test their response capabilities to crises
ranging from a major hurricane to a terrorist attack to a pandemic flu
outbreak.

Ardent Sentry 2006, a two-week U.S. Northern Command exercise, kicked
off May 8 to test military support to federal, provincial, state and
local authorities while continuing to support the Defense Department's
homeland defense mission, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Eric
Butterbaugh, a NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command
spokesman. The Canadian part of the exercise began May 1 and continues
through May 12.

The goal is to give these players an opportunity to sharpen their
ability to respond quickly and in a coordinated way to national
crises, Butterbaugh said.

Already, active-duty, National Guard and Reserve participants
operating in Colorado, Michigan, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, the
Canadian provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick and adjacent waters
have gotten plenty of opportunity to do so, said Mike Kucharek,
another NORTHCOM and NORAD spokesman.

They've confronted incidents in Michigan and Ontario, faced activity
on the south border and are tracking a potential threat to a DoD
computer system, he said. At the same time, they're monitoring a
suspicious incident in the northeastern United States that's affected
utility and energy supplies. Kucharek declined to share too many
specifics that might tip off exercise participants to what's coming or
interfere with its realism.

"We're feeling every bit of it," Kucharek said of the exercise,
affirming the promise Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating, NORTHCOM
commander, made last week of a "very aggressive" Ardent Sentry
scenario.

"It is not an open-book test," Keating told reporters during a May 4
media day at NORTHCOM's Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., headquarters.
"It will be very challenging for us, and that's the point."

Just as in real-life crises, NORTHCOM is playing a supporting role to
first responders during the exercise, as spelled out in the National
Response Plan. "We're not the lead," Kucharek said. "We may only be
monitoring, or we may send support as requested."

No large-scale troop movements are planned, but military units
involved will conduct field training at Selfridge Air National Guard
Base, Mich.; Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.; and an abandoned mining
town in Playas, N.M., now owned by the Department of Homeland
Security, he said.

While testing the military's interagency coordination, the exercise
also focuses on its ability to operate with the Canadian government
and the newly established Canada Command, NORTHCOM's Canadian
counterpart, Kucharek said.

"This is the first major exercise which will allow Canada Command to
train with federal and provincial departments and agencies," said
Gordon O'Connor, Canada's national defense minister. "Exercises such
as Ardent Sentry 2006 help ensure we respond to domestic threats and
natural disasters in a coordinated manner." It also will promote
"cross-border information sharing" between Canada Command and
NORTHCOM, he said.

Ardent Sentry builds on lessons learned during Hurricane Katrina,
which Keating called NORTHCOM's "first real acid test" since its
establishment in October 2002 to provide command and control of DoD
homeland defense efforts and to coordinate military assistance to
civil authorities.

"We learned a lot, and we observed much," Keating told reporters last
week. "We're working really hard to take lessons observed and make
sure they are lessons learned and mistakes not repeated."

New procedures introduced since Katrina will reduce NORTHCOM's
response time and improve communications and damage assessment, he
said. They'll reduce the time it takes to get assets where they're
needed and help tailor the type of assistance provided to the specific
need.

In addition, a new cell phone tower will improve communications among
first responders, particularly in areas where existing communication
lines are down.

Keating said he's confident NORTHCOM is prepared to face whatever
natural or manmade disaster it faces, including the hurricane season
that begins June 1.

"I can't imagine anything else we could do or should do," he told
reporters last week. "We are fully operational, we are as ready as we
can be for this upcoming hurricane season, as well as our response to
any other natural or manmade disaster."

Biography:

Adm. Timothy J. Keating, USN [
http://www.dod.mil/bios/keating_bio.html

Related Site:

U.S. Northern Command [
http://www.northcom.mil/

NOTE: View the original version of this web page on DefenseLINK, the
official website of the U.S. Department of Defense, at
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/20060510_5085.html

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