Updates

National Exercise Simulation Center (NESC) Opens at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today held the official opening of its newly constructed National Exercise Simulation Center (NESC) at FEMA Headquarters.  The NESC provides a state-of-the-art facility to serve the all-hazards preparedness and response mission through pooling resources, maximizing efficiency and providing sustained exercise and training support to all stakeholders.

The 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA) Section 664 called for the establishment of a National Exercise Simulation Center that uses a mix of live, virtual and constructive simulations to:

  • Prepare elected officials, emergency managers, emergency response providers and emergency support suppliers at all levels of government to operate cohesively;
  • Provide a learning environment for Homeland Security personnel of all federal agencies;
  • Assist in the development of operational procedures and exercises, particularly those based on catastrophic incidents; and
  • Allow incident commanders to exercise decision making in a simulated environment.

As envisioned in PKEMRA, the NESC will serve as a powerful tool that supports improved national preparedness.  It also serves as a key function in the initiative to develop a Federal Coordination Center (FCC) at FEMA Headquarters, which supports federal, regional, state and local partners in joint planning, training and exercising, and operational coordination in the National Capital Region (NCR).   Other FEMA elements of the FCC are the Disaster Operations Directorate, including the National Response Coordination Center, the National Incident Management Assistance Team East and FEMA Operational Planners the Office of National Capital Region Coordination and additional FEMA Directorates or non-FEMA agencies and organizations as appropriate.

Developing the NESC is the responsibility of the FEMA National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) and its components.  The NPD mission is to provide the guidance and support to prepare a nation to respond to incidents resulting from either natural causes or malicious acts to minimize the loss of lives and property.  Standing up a state-of-the-art National Exercise Simulation Center, as witnessed in the demonstration today, will provide a key capability in the national preparedness and response equation.

The NESC's initial operating capability supports basic training and exercise requirements with phone, network and visual display capabilities.  The NESC has already utilized these capabilities to support key Presidential Transition Training and Exercise events.  In the coming weeks, the NESC will provide an important support facility for Presidential Inauguration activities.

The true value of the NESC will be achieved as it expands beyond its initial capability, to fully support the needs of FEMA operational components, federal, state and local partners, and FEMA leadership.  Through a phased implementation plan, the NESC will expand its capabilities to:

  • Support national, federal, state, and local exercises throughout the United States and internationally, with around-the-clock availability, to include Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program exercises and the National Level Exercise 2009 with Master Control Cell and National Simulation Cell and related functions;
  • Provide a forum for interagency planners to test their plans (e.g., annual hurricane plans, pandemic influenza plans) by providing realistic incident scenarios through which partners canentify gaps and determine courses of action;
  • Serve as "future planning" support for FEMA's Disaster Operations Directorate and other FEMA and DHS Directorates by providing technical modeling and simulation tools that enable planners to better visualize potential future scenarios;
  • Coordinate activities that support real world events and exercises, such as Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program training and initial, mid, and final planning conferences;
  • Incorporate real-time, mock-media capabilities, such as the Virtual News Network, that provides exercise participants with realistic breaking news bulletins, interviews and live news coverage of incidents;
  • Provide practical training opportunities to those learning about exercise design, conduct and management through individual mentorship of federal, state, tribal and local professionals;
  • Link to other centers that provide specialty modeling, simulation and data services such as the Joint War-fighting Center, the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center, the Emergency Management Institute, and other centers that provide natural and man-made disaster modeling, constructive simulation tools, and Subject Matter Expert (SME) databases and historical deployment/response information; and
  • Incorporate national and FEMA improvement management services, to include the Remedial Action Management Program, the National Corrective Action Program and the Lessons Learned Information System, to support in-depth analysis of real world and exercise events and provide real-time lessons learned capabilities.
For additional information please visit www.fema.gov.

FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.