JTLS-JCATS federation support of emergency response training

The Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) supports Combatant Commander exercise programs with several simulation suites. Ten years ago simulated scenarios involved combat. Increasingly, however, scenarios depict crisis requiring humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, or similar emergency response (ER). JWFC responded to the change in scenario requirements by developing a simulation suite using existing joint simulations and the High Level Architecture (HLA). This paper briefly introduces JWFC´s concept of simulation-based exercise support and recommends its application to training and exercising members of an emergency operations center (EOC) or other ER management staff. The bulk of the paper describes federating the Joint Theater Level Simulation (JTLS) with the Joint Conflict and Tactical Simulation (JCATS). The paper presents a notional scenario involving the simulated detonation of a chemical weapon and articulates how the decisions made by the training audience, members of an EOC, result in simulated actions and events taken to mitigate casualties.