Information Sharing and Situational Awareness: Insights from the Cascadia Rising Exercise of June 2016

In a catastrophic incident gaining situational awareness (SA) is the foremost prerequisite that ena-bles responders to save and sustain lives, stabilize the incident, and protect the environment and property from further damage. However, catastrophes severely damage and disrupt critical infrastructures including response assets. Initially and for days and even weeks, essential information remains incomplete, unverified, and is changing as the catastrophic incident unfolds, all of which leads to a distorted common operating picture (COP). The lack of clear and comprehensive SA/COP prevents incident commanders from efficiently directing the response effort. This study reports on the challenges emergency responders faced with regard to situational awareness in a recent large-scale exercise under the name of Cascadia Rising 2016 (CR16) conducted in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The exercise involved a total of 23,000 active participants. Over four days in June of 2016, CR16 simulated the coordinated response to a rupture of the 800-mile Cascadia Subduction Zone resulting in a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami similar to the catastrophic incident in Eastern Japan in 2011. Responders at all levels were severely challenged, and the exercise revealed major vulnerabilities in critical infrastructures. Situational awareness was very difficult to establish. The exercise demonstrated that the challenges to SA/COP and to response management, in general, during catastrophic incidents cannot be regarded as a linear extension of non-catastrophic emergency and disaster responses. It rather requires the rethinking and revising of practices and procedures when responding under the constraints of massively degraded critical information infrastructures and harshly decimated assets

BUILDING CAPACITY AGAINST EXTREMIST THREATS: A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPROVED CORRECTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Prisons and jails house inmates susceptible to radicalization and recruitment by extremist groups, which necessitates an intelligence collection program to detect and disrupt this activity. Unfortunately, barriers exist within the State of Texas that hinder effective correctional intelligence sharing. This thesis asks, What can be done to improve the level of intelligence sharing in regard to extremism in correctional environments in the State of Texas? What benefits toward this effort could be derived from a centrally administered and coordinated intelligence framework? By examining existing programs, this thesis identifies barriers, including limited access to intelligence due to reliance on federal agencies, which require lengthy background checks and clearances; the lack of a robust network between facilities and law enforcement, which prevents the comparison of crucial data; and minimal inclusion of corrections within existing legal frameworks related to these threats. Using a case study analysis, this thesis examines three frameworks as possible models to improve information sharing. It argues that the State of Texas should use executive orders to create a centralized entity to coordinate intelligence to more effectively address threats within corrections.Civilian, Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Office of the Inspector GeneralApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

The Plot to Destroy Ukraine

This Special Report seeks to outline what Russia is trying to achieve in Ukraine, and how it is operationalising that intent through the synchronised application of state power.The spectre of war looms over Europe. As Russian troops mass around Ukraine's borders there is a palpable sense of crisis. In Ukraine, however, there is a combination of resignation and grim determination to survive. If Russia invades Ukrainians will fight. But the real threat to their country is viewed as multifaceted and enduring. Ukrainians must not only deter military aggression, but survive the political, social, and economic war that Russia is waging against their country

THE NEXT GENERATION OF WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING TOOLS: USING UAV SWARMS FOR FIRE ATTACK

Wildland fires pose a direct threat to homeland security because of the severe personal, economic, and social stress they cause to those affected. As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms become more ubiquitous in use, they will likely find a place as a frontline firefighting aerial asset, increasing the operational pace of aerial suppression flights and consequently increasing the safety of firefighters. This thesis explored the concept of using UAV swarms as a method for fire attack by comparing theoretical swarms to a conventional aerial asset within a realistic fire scenario and then using a systems engineering approach to define pressure points for implementing UAV swarms in the wildland space. The findings of this research support continued development of UAV swarms and clearly define areas that must be addressed before implementing large-scale UAV swarm flights. The firefighting UAV swarm system shows great promise due to its relative portability and ability to provide an aerial firefighting option to areas without ready access to conventional firefighting aircraft. It will be critical, however, to address logistical and communications constraints of UAV swarm systems before implementation to ensure positive outcomes.Civilian, Portland Fire and RescueApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Applications of agent architectures to decision support in distributed simulation and training systems

This work develops the approach and presents the results of a new model for applying intelligent agents to complex distributed interactive simulation for command and control. In the framework of tactical command, control communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), software agents provide a novel approach for efficient decision support and distributed interactive mission training. An agent-based architecture for decision support is designed, implemented and is applied in a distributed interactive simulation to significantly enhance the command and control training during simulated exercises. The architecture is based on monitoring, evaluation, and advice agents, which cooperate to provide alternatives to the dec ision-maker in a time and resource constrained environment. The architecture is implemented and tested within the context of an AWACS Weapons Director trainer tool. The foundation of the work required a wide range of preliminary research topics to be covered, including real-time systems, resource allocation, agent-based computing, decision support systems, and distributed interactive simulations. The major contribution of our work is the construction of a multi-agent architecture and its application to an operational decision support system for command and control interactive simulation. The architectural design for the multi-agent system was drafted in the first stage of the work. In the next stage rules of engagement, objective and cost functions were determined in the AWACS (Airforce command and control) decision support domain. Finally, the multi-agent architecture was implemented and evaluated inside a distributed interactive simulation test-bed for AWACS Vv\u27Ds. The evaluation process combined individual and team use of the decision support system to improve the performance results of WD trainees. The decision support system is designed and implemented a distributed architecture for performance-oriented management of software agents. The approach provides new agent interaction protocols and utilizes agent performance monitoring and remote synchronization mechanisms. This multi-agent architecture enables direct and indirect agent communication as well as dynamic hierarchical agent coordination. Inter-agent communications use predefined interfaces, protocols, and open channels with specified ontology and semantics. Services can be requested and responses with results received over such communication modes. Both traditional (functional) parameters and nonfunctional (e.g. QoS, deadline, etc.) requirements and captured in service requests

Reinforcing the Law of the Sea Convention of 1982 Through Clarification and Implementation

That the Law of the Sea Convention faces implementation challenges is nothing new; it is, as many have noted, a framework and a scaffold - a constitution for the oceans - which necessarily left many matters of detail to future negotiation, associated instruments, and state practice. What has emerged over the last two decades, however, is an increasing reluctance on the part of states to pursue implantation via new, more detailed, treaty commitments. This article explores alternative options for enhancing Law of the Sea Convention compliance - options that do not necessarily require the \u27more law\u27 path to granularity and implementation. The analysis begins by describing the amenability of the LOSC to refinement processes, focusing upon its flexibility (including its ‘constructive ambiguity’) and conduciveness (the significant allowance built into the LOSC for domestic contextualization, interpretation, and implementation). With this background established, the analysis then explores four alternative pathways to facilitating and reinforcing compliance - pathways that do not involve the negotiation of additional hard law or mixed hard/soft law instruments, nor the establishment of new governance institutions. The first alternative is to employ a ‘process’ approach, noting the relative success of this option in the maritime domain as represented by the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS). The second alternative approach is the adaptable employment of existing rules to meet an evolving governance challenge - the issue of privately contracted armed security personnel (PCASP) being a case study on point. The third option is to apply refined interpretive endeavors to existing authorizations which have hitherto been subject to relatively superficial analysis and application – for example, in relation to vessels without nationality (VWON) and counter-drug interdictions at sea. The fourth option is the employment of existing but under-utilized LOSC-based or LOSC-leveraged mechanisms and authorizations - such as Article 17 of the Vienna Convention on Traffic of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988 - in new or expanded ways

Operationalizing Intelligence Dominance

Newer, fragile states often lack the police, administrative, and economic resources needed to govern effectively, and many cannot provide basic goods and services to significant sectors of their population. The vacuum inside these states is being filled by armed groups and political movements that are growing in both numbers and capability. The global competition for power, influence, and legitimacy leads to struggles for control of populations, territory, and resources.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-case-studies/1005/thumbnail.jp

La configuració U-space impacta en la seguretat, capacitat i flexibilitat

El present treball de final de grau està enfocat a l'estudi del concepte U-space, els seus actuals i futurs serveis i procediments per a permetre l'accés de UAVs a l'espai aeri de manera segura, eficient i flexible, i l'anàlisi dels resultats de simulacions estudiant com a diferents configuracions de l'espai aeri impacten en la flexibilitat i capacitat del sistemaEl presente trabajo de final de grado está enfocado al estudio del concepto U-space, sus actuales y futuros servicios y procedimientos para permitir el acceso de UAVs al espacio aéreo de forma segura, eficiente y flexible, y el análisis de los resultados de simulaciones estudiando como diferentes configuraciones del espacio aéreo impactan en la flexibilidad y capacidad del sistemaThe present final degree study is focused on the exploration of the U-space concept, its current and future services and procedures to allow the access of UAVs to the airspace in a safe, efficient and flexible way, and the analysis of the results of simulations studying how different airspace configurations impact on the flexibility and capacity of the syste