Posted: April 23, 2007

WASHINGTON – A joint task force involving the military, Department of
Homeland Security and police is set to begin a sophisticated and
realistic drill today on how to respond to a terrorist nuclear bomb
detonated on U.S. soil.

Dubbed "Noble Resolve '07," the series of tests are a follow-up to a
similar operation last year called "Urban Resolve" and will run through
Friday.

The U.S. Joint Forces Command, which recently modeled every building in
Baghdad in virtual space, is using that same technology in the Tidewater
area of southern Virginia for this modeling and simulation project.
Joining the command in the operation will be the Northern Command, DHS,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Virginia police.

The planned scenario involves a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb headed to
Virginia from a foreign country.

"It's a venue that we're providing to allow a variety of organizations
to work issues that they're concerned about, and have access to partners
that they wouldn't normally have access to," explained Navy Capt. John
M. Kersh Jr., who heads U.S. Joint Forces Command's J9's Joint Context
and Homeland Defense Department. "I'm sure there are already some
working relationships. Anything we can do to enhance those relationships
and introduce other people, that's a great thing."

Kersh said the military is taking what it learned overseas and bringing
that knowledge back to the U.S. to protect the homeland. In this
scenario, the threat originates in Europe and travels to the U.S.

"You try to prevent the problem by working with your multinational
partners," he said. "And give the multinational partners an opportunity
to interrupt the threat as soon as possible, so you work the problem as
far in advance as you can."

In this case, as the bomb gets closer to its destination, other agencies
are brought into the planning.

"The problem eventually arrives at the Commonwealth of Virginia with
that threat making it into port and then blowing up," he said. "This
will cause us to work the consequence management part of the problem."

Noble Resolve '07 will test state planners and emergency manpower as
well as federal.

"One of the capabilities that's going to be flexed during this is a new
capability that the commonwealth has stood up called the fusion center,"
said Kersh. "It's manned by folks from Virginia, including the state
police, and they've got actual DHS employees in there as well. The
fusion center is in a state police headquarters and it's collocated with
Virginia's emergency operations center."

Later this year, many members of the team will work with city officials
in Portland, Ore., and the Oregon National Guard in an exercise designed
to prevent, prepare for and respond to large-scale terrorist attacks
involving weapons of mass destruction.

One nuclear terror expert said last week the chances of a detonation in
the U.S. in the next decade are 50 percent.

Also last week, Vice President Dick Cheney said the threat of nuclear
terrorism is very real.

"The fact is that the threat to the United States now of a 9/11
occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and
box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own
cities is the greatest threat we face," he said. "It's a very real
threat. It's something that we have to worry about and defeat every
single day."

Meanwhile, the most extensive study of the effects of such an attack
concluded the U.S. was woefully under-prepared to respond, particularly
if the event took place in a major population center.