Florida Agencies Join Forces for Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction Preparedness Exercise

OSCEOLA COUNTY, FLORIDA—From March 5 to March 7, 2013, local, county, state, and federal agencies will be engaged in a terrorism based training exercise called Chimera. The field training exercise permits specialized teams to work together and test their respective response plans. The training event encompasses a multi-dimensional terrorism incident involving weapons of mass destruction. In addition, the participating agencies implemented a unified command structure, coordinated logistical support, and fine-tune inter-agency communications. Joint training operations such as Chimera prove essential to the timely response and successful mitigation of threats during real-world emergencies while enhancing public safety. The exercise is being held in the vicinity of Lake X in Osceola County.

The participating teams have prepared to deploy high-tech equipment to identify and address chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive agent threats during the exercise. The teams consist of public safety first responders, tactical teams, bomb technicians, crisis negotiators, hazardous material technicians, evidence technicians, military personnel from the Central Florida region, and other experts.

Participating agencies include the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Kissimmee Police Department, the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services-Florida Division, Florida National Guard-48th CST, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Army Air Reserves, Florida Emergency Management, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Osceola County Fire Rescue, Orange County Fire Rescue, Orlando Police Department, volunteers from the University of Central Florida School of Criminal Justice, and the FBI.