The variety and number of domestic and military operational roles the Defense Department fulfills in today's uncertain environment require mission rehearsals with civil authorities and an astonishing number of government and non-government agencies.

Noble Resolve can help. Noble Resolve is a U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) campaign plan designed to enhance homeland defense and improve military support to civil authorities for quick and decisive action in the event of natural or manmade disasters.

The aim of Noble Resolve is to develop solutions for U.S. agencies and organizations to use to deter, prevent and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories and interests.

Supported by U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), Noble Resolve is the first of what will be a series of experiments held over a number of years on this theme. USJFCOM's Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate (J9) manages Noble Resolve experimentation.

According to Rear Adm. James Winnefeld, J9 director, more than 125 people from across the United States and multinational participants, including Canada, Germany, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, and others, came together in the weeklong event. USJFCOM collaborated with the U.S. Transportation Command and other federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and Customs and Border Protection. In this event, JFCOM teamed with the commonwealth of Virginia and, in a later phase, Oregon will be added.

Winnefeld discussed Noble Resolve with members of media April 26, emphasizing that it was important to understand how crucial the exercise was to understanding and planning the Department of Defense role in effectively assisting civil authorities. Referring to current disaster relief capabilities, Winnefeld said that organizations at every level need to improve disaster response methods and that JFCOM is eager to assist.

Virginia's General Assembly passed legislation in 2005 that required the governor to establish a multi-agency intelligence center to receive and coordinate information related to terrorism and other hazards. Because JFCOM is located in Virginia, working with the commonwealth and its agencies is a logical choice and saves taxpayer dollars, Winnefeld said.

The timing was especially good because the commonwealth was simultaneously conducting an exercise in conjunction with the Army, called the Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise, or VERTEX, centrally managed at the Virginia Fusion Center, located in the Virginia State Police Combined Headquarters in suburban Richmond.

"We are working with the Fusion Center carefully. We are helping them with nodal analysis tools to help them understand where their communications seams might be. We are trying to stay out of their way. They are running an exercise, and we don't want to be viewed as the 100-pound gorilla muscling in trying to run their experiment for them," Winnefeld said.

Results from the exercise will be analyzed and become an after action report that will then be sent to all participants, as well as Virginia officials, including Gov. Tim Kaine and mayors of the cities in Hampton Roads, said Winnefeld. However, a quick look report will be distributed to participants within 30 days of the conclusion of the experiment.

The Fusion Center, run by the Virginia State Police Criminal Intelligence Division, provides criminal intelligence and technical support to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. The center's role in Noble Resolve was to coordinate the flow of information during Virginia's response to the scenario and allow the various federal, state and local entities involved to get a clear picture of what was happening. These included firefighters and police officers from the Tidewater area, who worked with agencies all the way up to the national strategic level.

Those partners include Virginia's Department of Fire Programs and Department of Health. Other state and local agencies, like the Virginia Port Authority, connect to the Fusion Center from their own offices, feeding up-to-date information into the system. Some of these tools have nationwide applicability to other states' Emergency Operations Centers and local municipalities, according to Winnefeld.

"Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim was in here this morning and he was interested in getting some of the tools into his hands instantly so that he can apply them to some of the problems Norfolk might have. We had folks from Hampton here that were interested in the same things," Winnefeld said.

Because homeland security threats cut across the interests of many government and public agencies, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, National Guard and even the Maersk shipping line, based in Norfolk Va., participated. Maersk was helpful in showing its capabilities for maritime domain awareness, Winnefeld said.

On a tour of the experimentation cells, Winnefeld and Dave Ozolek, executive director of JFCOM's Joint Futures Laboratory, and other exercise coordinators, explained the dimensions of the exercise by demonstrating some of the technology used in the experiments. It's difficult to create a sense of excitement observing rooms full of people staring at computer screens, but Winnefeld and Ozolek succeeded by their enthusiasm and knowledge of the technological innovations they demonstrated.