FORT EUSTIS, Va –
Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-CS) will conduct Exercise Sudden Response 21 (SR21) in and around Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM), Washington; Camp Rilea, Oregon; and Williamsburg and Fort Eustis, Virginia; from Jan. 21 to 27.
“The overall goal of this exercise is to build on our skills in providing Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) in the event we are ever needed to respond to a catastrophic domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) disaster in a metropolitan area,” said Army Maj. Gen. Jeff Van, commander, JTF-CS.
SR21 is designed to sustain proficiency in command and control of the Defense CBRN Response Force (DCRF) and to prepare for the Vibrant Response (VR) annual confirmation exercise. These exercises help assure that JTF-CS’ headquarters and DCRF units are trained and ready to execute their CBRN response mission, with no-notice, anywhere in the United States.
JTF-CS will take a distributed approach to providing decentralized command and control during SR21 and operate out of the Fort Eustis, Virginia, area while its DCRF units will work in the areas of JBLM and Camp Rilea.
“The distributed response will allow JTF-CS to send smaller and flexible rapid- and incident-support teams forward with the bulk of the planning and coordination being done from our joint headquarters at Fort Eustis,” Van said.
The approximately 5,000-member joint service, multi-component DCRF is intended to provide a rapid and robust initial response capability to support civilian authorities to save lives, relieve human suffering and prevent great property damage following a catastrophic CBRN incident.
This annual training exercise is not in response to any recent incident or event, but has been in planning and coordination for more than a year with a realistic operation environment and scenario.
Exercise events will occur in the three locations Jan. 21-27. The training will take place mostly on military installations and should have no effect on the public.
JTF-CS provides command and control of the DCRF and assigned forces. The specialized response force brings 60 different military units from more than 30 locations across the U.S. together to provide a variety of life-saving and life-sustaining response capabilities. At the direction of U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Army North, JTF-CS provides military assistance in support of civil authorities by saving lives, preventing further injury and providing temporary critical support to enable community recovery.