Review of the first of two tabletop exercises, successful but challenging conducted in close cooperation with the Public Security Directorate, Civil Defense Directorate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, funded by the European Union to promote Host Nation Support.
More than 60 Civil Protection experts from 12 countries brought their experience to the EU Host Nation Support tabletop exercise, conducted in cooperation with the Jordan Public Security Directorate – Civil Defense Directorate and funded by European Union.
The exercise was conducted outside Europe, what is the main purpose to be outside of Europe? “It´s like every deployment, is unique and different, and our preparedness activities are aiming both at the 35 participating states, member states of the UCPM, but also the neighbourhood countries, so we do include HNS in all our exercises inside Europe, and this is also an opportunity to expand and target states outside the European Union because the majority of deployments are still outside Europe. And we do believe this is a very relevant and very pertinent training opportunity, so we are very happy that in this case Jordan, JCD was willing to take upon themselves this opportunity to train and host this exercise.”, so Geir Ellingsen from DG ECHO, the Project Officer for the EU HNS.
Process of the TTX: on the first day of the “disaster”, the exercise increased significantly. After assessing and analysing the situation, the need for international assistance and the draft of the Request for Assistance was done. After the lunch break, there was a time jump, in the afternoon the situation on day two of the disaster was simulated, and the national response and the arrival of the response teams from the EU were exercised.
On the second day of the TTX, the situation of “disaster day 7” was simulated. As longer a mission runs, more need for local support appears. Here the Host Nation Support came as of utmost importance. These topics were planned and discussed between the JCD officers and the EUCPT, led by Emmanuel Chapeau. Three UCPM skeleton modules were on-site, a MUSAR (Medium Search and Rescue) from the Czech Republic, a WP (Water Purification) from Hungary and an EMT (Emergency Medical Team) from Romania. Furthermore, four more “virtual” modules with their support needs kept the HNS cell busy throughout the exercise.
"The implementation of virtual reality together with the online e-learning course were the innovations of the project EU HNS. Visualisation of complex situations for tabletop training is of great importance to get the "feeling" of a real mission. Thanks to our partner from the Virtual reality simulation team, we were able to give the participants these impressions".
On the last day a hot wash-up from the evaluators, led by Prof. Dr Cristian Boeriu from the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureş followed. The certificate handover to the participants and staff of the EU HNS project tabletop exercise was the finalization of the TTX Jordan.
A tabletop exercise depends more than a field exercise on roleplayers. Ideally, you ask people active in this role to play themselves. This was very easy in Amman because all important actors in the field were invited by the Jordan Civil Defense Directorate and present at the exercise: UN OCHA office (Head of Office and the Humanitarian Affairs Associate), UNHCR, WHO, and WFP, and the representative of the UN Office for Palestine. Furthermore, the delegate of the IFRC, from the Red Crescent of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation were present.
Experts from the Ministries of Interior, Energy, Health, Water and Irrigation, Public Works, and Housing participated. Decision makers from the National Center for Security and Crises Management, the Jordanian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, the Gendarmerie forces, and the Jordanian Medical Services completed the full range of stakeholders who are active in a disaster of the dimension, we simulated as the TTX scenario.
One of the absolute highlights of the EU HNS TTX last week in Amman, Jordan was the visit of Secretary of State, Dr. Raed Arafat and the acting Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Mrs. Angela Martini. Escorted by H.E. the ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Romania, the General Director of the Civil Defense Directorate within the Public Security Directorate and the head of the Palestine Civil Defense they visited the four HNS exercise rooms OPS/VR, EUCPT/Modules, JCD/LEMA, and EXCON.
"A very successful training, we could offer the participants a new and challenging learning experience. All relevant stakeholders on an emergency were present and we had also a visit from the acting head of the EU Delegation in Jordan. Thanks to our dedicated exercise staff, highly motivated participants and the massive contribution of the Jordan Civil Defense Directorate we could conduct a challenging exercise here in Amman successfully".
The objective of the contract is to design, plan, conduct and evaluate two table top exercises (TTX) with host nation support (HNS).