USFF/CNIC Completes Ardent Sentry/National Level Exercise 2011

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFF) and Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) completed Ardent Sentry/National Level Exercise (AS/NLE-11) 2011, May 19th.

The purpose of National Level Exercise is to prepare the military, including the U.S. Navy, to focus on defense support to civil authorities (DSCA) for missions assigned through the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) to Homeland Defense organizations.

"We are very proud of our [CNIC] team and the region's performance during AS/NLE-11. We firmly believe our high performance was due to CNIC's Training and Readiness pre-exercise support, to include the Region Operations Center, operations course, as well as the command's culture of training instilled through weekly recurring Emergency Operations Center (EOC) training and emergency management (EM) plan preparation sessions," said Scott Ebell, executive director, Navy Region Midwest.

The objectives of the exercise were to train in the following areas:

• restoration of USN facilities and infrastructure in the affected area
• support of the extended Navy family
• DSCA and immediate response
• personnel accountability in response to an unanticipated natural disaster

"The use of the modeling and simulation (M&S) tools greatly enhanced the quality of the exercise injects, providing a realistic scenario for the installation commanding officer and staff. We will leverage M&S in all our future exercises," said William Clark, shore exercise program manager, CNIC.

Exercise play spanned the Navy, from Chief of Naval Operations guidance, through personnel accountability and mission support, down to 'affected' installations handling scripted scenarios.

USFF serves as the Navy operational commander for U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) during disaster preparedness/response and DSCA type exercises.

CNIC, along with USFF, receives requests for support (RFS) from subordinate commanders (such as Navy Region Midwest and Naval Support Activity Mid-South), which result in providing support and services ranging from baby supplies to damage assessment teams.

The Navy participated in AS/NLE 2011 May 16 -19. The exercise was centered around a scenario of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred in western Tennessee near Memphis, creating widespread damage and casualties throughout eight midwestern states and four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions.