Planning for this challenge -- which will come in the form of the nation's largest emergency response exercise to date -- is intensifying, now that a Virginia company has been selected for the lead role in supporting what's known as TOPOFF 4. The acronym is short for the Department of Homeland Security's Top Officials National Exercise Series. AMTI, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based company founded by special operations veterans, was chosen for this key responsibility under a $350-million five-year federal contract.
TOPOFF 4, planned for next year, will involve more than 200 domestic and international organizations, ranging from governmental agencies at all levels to private industry and non-profit organizations. The exercise will take place in three American cities as well as elsewhere in North America, in a U.S. territory, in Europe, and in the Pacific region. Lessons learned from TOPOFF 4 will also have applications for response and recovery for major natural disasters.
"TOPOFF 4 will be the ultimate challenge of the ability to respond and to coordinate the response among a great number of agencies and organizations in a simulated worst-case terrorist scenario," says Jim Papineau, AMTI president and CEO. "We're honored to have been selected to assist the nation in this vitally important endeavor."
As part of its work, AMTI will help design, cast, and run a large wargame, which will be conducted in highly sophisticated simulations. Papineau says AMTI is well-positioned to make those simulations as real-life as possible.
"With the global operational and intelligence backgrounds of our subject matter experts, we're able to stay aware of evolving terrorist threats," he said. "This insight will be crucial in our work for TOPOFF 4."
The company will also develop and execute two cabinet-level exercises for senior officials and four seminars on national preparedness.
AMTI served in the primary support role for TOPOFFs 2 and 3, which took place in Illinois and Washington State in 2003 and in Connecticut and New Jersey in 2005.
"The scope of TOPOFF 2 and 3 will be greatly expanded in TOPOFF 4," Papineau says. "The national and international scale, degree of planning, execution and follow-up analysis will set a new standard."
