Sandia is gearing up for a local exercise that will test at least one important element of DHS’s Rapidly Deployable Chemical Detection System (RDCDS). In late October, Sandia will participate in Alameda County’s Urban Shield exercise, touted as “a real-life, tactical multidisciplinary training exercise.” With a multitude of regional agencies supporting the weekend event, the exercise will simulate a terrorist attack on a nearby nuclear facility.
Though RDCDS’s full capability will not be exercised, says Nate Gleason (8125), event organizers are interested in the system’s ability to quickly deploy a video monitoring system consisting of a full suite of cameras, video recording, and networking capabilities.
“The goals are to stream live video directly to exercise controllers and to record the proceedings for analysis later on,” says Nate. Though the RDCDS can conduct its video surveillance activities remotely, Sandia will likely have a staff member on site during the exercise in order to more effectively communicate with controllers.