This purpose of this website is to provide information about Homeland Security and Homeland Defense initiatives (education and research) being developed at NJIT, ARDEC (Picatinny Arsenal), the New Jersey Business Force and its Homeland Security/ Homeland Defense partners.
BUSINESS EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (BEOC) NEWS: (for further information about BEOC activities contact Col. Hank Straub of the NJ Business Force (hstraub@bens.org) or Dr. Michael Chumer (chumer@njit.edu)November 2008 - Planning has begun to develop an exercise with NORAD/Northcom based on a response scenario to a Cat .3 Hurricane in the NYC area. Planning will begin with the DHS that will incorporate the private sector into National Level Exercise 09.
August 2008- The BEOC was activated in support the Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership (CEPP) in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. This activation was at the ARDEC test EOC.
May 1 - 5, 2008 -The BEOC was activated for National Level Exercise 2-08 at the Armament Research Development Engineering Center (ARDEC) test EOC. This was the first exercise conducted at the test EOC and allowed the BEOC to exercise private/public sector collaborations required in response to a Category 3 hurricane making landfall near the Capital Region affecting the states adjacent to Washington DC. A second scenario running in parallel was based upon explosions under several bridges in Seattle.
February 10, 2008 - In December the second exercise conducted
by the BEOC was held at NJIT see:
Virtual Hurricane Response Exercise
Dec. 2008
Since that time a BEOC Concept Paper
was written. The next exercise planned to test BEOC systems and technologies
will be Ardent Sentry 2008, a National Level exercise coordinated by NORAD/NORTHCOM
(N/NC).
November 26, 2007- The Looking Glass After Action Report Nov. 2007 can be accessed here as well as through the "Exercises" menu. Remember this was the first in a series of exercises designed to develop a Business Emergency Operations Center (BEOC) prototype. The second exercise (Dec. 12 and 13) hosted by NJIT will be virtual and will be used to further test the technologies and systems that can contribute to "situational awareness", "shared situational awareness", and the development of a "common operating picture" between private and public sector collaborators during a hurricane response scenario. For further information about the BEOC "action research" program see the Emergency Response by Wire extended abstract. If your organization wishes to participate in the BEOC project in December and/or during 2008 contact me at chumer@njit.edu.
November 1, 2007- My ASIS presentation can be downloaded here Presentation
October 26, 2007 - On Oct . 17 and Oct. 18 NJIT and the NJ Business Force, a Business Executives for National Security (BENS) organization, hosted an exercise called "Looking Glass". This was part of TOPOFF 4 and was designed to encourage the "private sector" to participate in the National Exercise program. Observers included the DHS (at the Federal level), State OHSP to include the State Exercise team, State DOH, Port Authority NY/NJ, and Hudson County OEM. The exercise also tested remote communication to NORTHCOM and corporations that included AIG. An after action report is being developed and it's abstract will be posted on this website.