Army National Guard's Civil Support Teams Receive "Incident Commanders' Radio Interface" Equipment

In an effort to solve one of the biggest hurdles to on-the scene communications and coordination amongst first-responders, The Army National Guard's Civil Support Teams, have received a first order of the "Incident Commanders' Radio Interface (ICRI)," a cigar box-sized device that provides radio interoperability in a matter of minutes at the scene of a major incident.

ICRI, developed by Communications-Applied Technology, will enable Civil Support Teams to communicate with the different radios used by local and state police, fire, public safety, homeland security and other first-responders. The 22-member Civil Support Teams are specifically trained and equipped to respond to weapons of mass destruction, and to test disaster sites for deadly chemical, biological, radiological or explosive agents.

The ICRI will be used in the Civil Support Teams' mobile command vehicles as part of their Advance Echelon communications system. Eleven additional ICRIs are being procured as a follow-on to the initial order of thirteen by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Special Communications Requirements Division (SCRD). On-the-scene set-up of ICRI is quick, typically taking less than five minutes to configure - allowing different commercial and military land mobile radios, VoIP equipment, satellite phones, cell phones, land-line phones, and hybrid cellular/walkie-talkie phones to communicate.

Authored by Congress in 1999 as a means to respond to deadly domestic crises, there are currently 32 Civil Support Teams throughout the country, with eleven newly authorized teams that will be located in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Guam, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont and Wyoming. Twelve other teams are currently working towards certification.

The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Special Communications Requirements Division (SCRD), St. Inigoes, Maryland, integrates the communications vehicle platform in support of the Civil Support Teams. To date, NAVAIR has delivered 56 communications vehicles to various Civil Support Teams in support of their mission.