Tabletop Exercises (TTX):

The RBTX Staff has been directly involved in the design, development, coordination and facilitation of some 97 tabletop exercises (TTX) over the past 13 years – TTXs that have resulted in the training of over 7,800 Federal, State, local and private sector law enforcement, security, emergency responder, and health care professionals.  As the name implies, Reality Based Training and Exercises, LLC is committed to making the tabletop exercise as realistic as possible by replicating the nature of the real-world threat to your unique facility or corporation – whether that’s a threat from terrorism, or a threat from tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fire, or other “all hazards”.  The scenario will depict your site-specific facility(ies), personnel and equipment as well as the actual capabilities of local police departments, fire, EMS, and area hospitals.
Tabletop exercises – an excellent way to build “Joint Teamwork”
RBTX designs tabletop exercises that provide the customer a set of unique opportunities:
  • To understand the true nature of the threat (whether malevolent disgruntled employees or acts of terrorism or the effects of catastrophic natural hazards) to your facility, city, or region
  • To observe through short video clips how terrorists or disgruntled employees could attack your organization and its facilities – or in the case of a natural disaster – the degree and extent to which that natural disaster would impact your organization, its facilities, and its ability to operate
  • To meet all of the law enforcement, first responders, and health care professionals who would actually be responding to a terrorist incident or natural hazard incident at your organization and an opportunity to understand what capabilities and constraints each responder organization brings to the table – a unique opportunity to build “Joint Teamwork” – before an actual incident
  • To review existing security and response plans, policies, and procedures and to consider more effective options for how your organization can improve its abilities to detect, deter, disrupt, prevent, or respond to a malevolent terrorist incident or the effects of a catastrophic natural hazard
“Effective solutions through Reality Based Training and Exercises”

Raise Terrorist Threat Awareness:
  • Provide best available unclassified information from DHS, FBI, and local law enforcement
  • Tailor threat to specific site, region, and state
  • Sensitize TTX participants to unique threats
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) perpetrators release contaminated animals from Biosafety Level 3 facility

Replicate Terrorist Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures:
  • Multiple, near simultaneous attacks to overwhelm first responders
  • Exploit real-world site-specific weaknesses and vulnerabilities
  • Demonstrate ease of obtaining weapons and explosive materials in local region
  • Depict real-world threat groups, protest groups, vendors
A terrorist in a stolen van filled with ammonia nitrate fuel oil explosive and nitro methane accesses a key electrical substation and detonates a VBIED

Promote "Whole Community" Joint Team Building:
  • Invite all Federal, State, Local, Tribal, Non-for-Profit, Public and Private Sector agencies and organizations that would actually be responding to the terrorist   and / or natural disaster at your site and facilities
  • Find out “Who does what to whom” in a terrorist and /or natural disaster incident
  • Learn about each organizations capabilities and constraints
  • Review your own plans, policies, and procedures as well as MOU/MOA
Federal, State, Local, Tribal, Non-for-Profit, Public and Private Sector agencies and organizations promote Joint Team Building within the Whole Community

Get the "Right Players" to Attend:
  • Make Federal, State, Local, and Tribal players “True Partners” in the TTX:
  • Let them name the TTX, set the date, and define scope of the TTX
  • Incorporate their training objectives
  • Use their “Trusted Agents” in scenario development
  • Make the TTX HSEEP certified
  • Make the TTX a “No Fault” learning experience
  • Support the TTX with appropriate State and Federal agency representatives
Hospital’s Incident Command System stands up following an explosion in the hospital

Make the TTX an "All-Hazards" Whole Community Exercise:
  • Make the TTX relevant to all players, participants, and observers by addressing within the scenario of each TTX:
  • Crisis Management Phase – Where site, local, State, and Federal security and law enforcement have the opportunity to detect, deter, disrupt, prevent and / or respond to a terrorist or malevolent incident
Crisis Management efforts to detect, deter, disrupt or prevent a terrorist incident from occurring
  • Consequence Management Phase – Where site, local, State, and Federal agencies respond to the consequences of a terrorist incident(s) or a catastrophic natural disaster and save live, mitigate the consequences, recover, and restore capabilities
Consequence Management efforts to respond to the consequences of a VBIED explosion at an outdoor chemical storage facility

Bring the TTX to Life with Audio-Visual Clips:
  • Create short scene-setter video clips to familiarize all the Players with the region, city, and specific site involved in the TTX
  • Provide the terrorists’ perspective of how they would attack a specific target(s)
  • Provide on-the-scene “Breaking News” of ongoing activity as events occur
Up-to-the-minute news updates as they occur in the scenario

Require Players to Demonstrate Critical Skills During the TTX:
  • Have Players organize, develop, and present a news conference that addresses scenario events in order to:
      o   Keep the public informed
      o   Pass on Protective Action Guidance to the public
      o   Prevent panic
Press conference to keep the public informed

Capture "Lessons Learned" and "Acton Items" While They're Still Fresh:
  • Conduct an immediate “Hot Wash” to identify:
      o   Lessons Learned
      o   Follow-Up Action Items
      o   Best Practices
      o   Ideas for improving the TTX
Conduct “Hot Wash” immediately following TTX

international exercises:

The RBTX staff has directly participated in the design, development, coordination, and facilitation of three international exercises that involved some 150 diplomats, and Federal, State, and local law enforcement, emergency responders, and public health personnel.

US-Canada Energy TTX:
  • Ice storm scenario involving loss of electricity in Northeast United States and Southeast Canada
  • Co-sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy and Canadian National Energy Board
  • Addressed issues of international cooperation to assess, repair, remediate, and restore electrical power and critical services both in the United States and Canada during a prolonged ice storm
U.S. – Canada cooperation during a major ice storm

US-Russia Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) TTX:
  • Exercise directed as a result of 2005 Bush-Putin Bratislava Initiatives
  • Co-sponsored by Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and the Russian ROSATOM
  • U.S. and Russian experts shared tactics, techniques, and procedures for responding to a terrorist RDD incident
  • Russian delegation declared tabletop exercise as the “Highlight of their visit to the United States” and heralded the use of video news clips in tabletop exercises as something they would adopt in Russia
2005 Bush-Putin Bratislava Initiatives directed first-ever U.S.-Russia RDD TTX

US-Israeli Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) TTX:
  • Co-sponsored by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission
  • Scenario dealt with the response to a radiological dispersal device detonation in a major U.S. city
  • Exercise objectives included defining “Best Practices” for how best to respond to the many challenges faced in an RDD detonation in a built up area
Joint U.S. – Israeli RDD Tabletop Exercise