Chemical Biological Response Aide (CoBRA) selected by U.S. DHS to coordinate response in upcoming regional New Jersey Gateway Response exercise. – vcan.org
Chemical Biological, virginia Crime, Response Aide (CoBRA??) selected by U.S. DHS to coordinate response in upcoming regional New Jersey Gateway Response exercise.
Alexandria, VA, November 2003
The Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), United States Department of Homeland Security, is field testing and evaluating CoBRA??, a sophisticated, virginia Crime, emergency response system, to agencies participating in the New Jersey Gateway Response Exercise. The Gateway Response is a series of exercises that will culminate in a full scale multi-jurisdictional exercise, virginia Crime, involving chemical and radiological weapons conducted at the Port of Newark on November 15, 2003.
The objectives of the exercise include tests of the Incident Command System, the, virginia Crime, Unified Command System, interagency communications, hazard assessment techniques, mutual aid coordination measures, crime scene operations (particularly in areas of potential contamination), decontamination and remediation measures.
Participating organizations will include local and county first responders, the New Jersey State responders, and federal agencies such as the FBI, and U.S. DHS Customs, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
New Jersey will apply leading edge technologies like the CoBRA?? system in ODP sponsored, virginia Crime, exercises and daily operations to meet the unique security requirements faced by the state.
The CoBRA?? systems, including software and ruggedized laptops, will be used by exercise participants, controllers and evaluators on site, where it will wirelessly make available critical information as well as automate the rapid and accurate collection of data during the course of the exercise.
The Chemical Biological Response Aide (CoBRA??) software, developed by Defense Group Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia, comprises a complete electronic reference library for chemical, biological, radiological, and explosives threat data, a collection of government best practices and local unit protocols for responding to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction and other large scale events, a set of interactive checklists to guide actions on-scene, and an automatic time-tagged event log for all responder actions.
The CoBRA?? system enables electronic forms to be completed and submitted through a wireless data link, greatly speeding up the flow of necessary data among the participants in an exercise.
The CoBRA?? software was originally developed under the sponsorship of the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), and has been fielded to almost 2,000 responders across the country, including all the nationally accredited bomb squads, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, and a number of the National Guard WMD Civil Support teams.
For additional information, please visit www.cobraguides.com, or contact Neil Cohen at 877-233-5789 x141, e-mail neil.cohen@defensegp.com.