The Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team on Sunday completed a deployment in support of Homeland Defender 23, a four-day training exercise coordinated by the Indiana National Guard and held at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center with more than 500 participants.
The exercise brought together National Guard units, civilian emergency management personnel, first responders and industry partners like Verizon Frontline to practice disaster response operations based on simulated emergency scenarios. The goal of the exercise is to prepare civilian and military organizations to work together as they would on the front lines of an actual disaster.
The training at Homeland Defender 23 is centered around a simulated major earthquake along the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, which is located in Southeastern Illinois and Southwestern Indiana and capable of producing up to magnitude 7.0 earthquakes. Exercise participants conducted a variety of emergency response drills tied to training scenarios including evacuations and urban search and extraction operations.
With dozens of Verizon Frontline solutions on-hand, including several Satellite Picocells on Trailers (SPOT), Verizon Frontline’s Tactical Humanitarian Operations Response (THOR) vehicle, Verizon’s Rapid Response Connectivity Unit and multiple drones, the Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team established and supported mission-critical communication capabilities for exercise participants at multiple locations across the installation. While on site, THOR delivered network connectivity and enhanced situational awareness for exercise participants while also serving as a mobile command center. Verizon Frontline support of this training was provided at the invitation of the Indiana National Guard. This year’s exercise also featured National Guard units from Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio.
Cory Davis, Assistant Vice President, Verizon Frontline
Participation in exercises like Homeland Defender is a foundational element of Verizon Frontline’s overall response strategy. By working side-by-side with military and public safety agency partners during realistic training scenarios, we’ve been able to build and gain critical insight into their mission and needs during emergency response operations, enabling us to continue to meet those needs.
