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Annex D: Play VI – Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief

ANNEX D:

PLAY IV – HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE/DISASTER RELIEF

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Purpose:

Procedures

Communication Networks

Communication Networks Checklist

Information Sharing with Other Agencies/Ministries Checklist

FIGURES

Figure 1: Standby Capability

TABLES

Table 1: Communications Network Checklist

Table 2: Information Sharing

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Annex D: Play VI – Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief

Purpose:

The intention of this effort is to describe appropriate actions for MOD Crisis Action Team (CAT) to take in response to requests for communications support to Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) missions. HA/DR missions are typically unplanned events related to a severe natural disaster or other catastrophic event. Communications support provided by the CAT will be to facilitate the provisioning of communications services in areas where there is currently none available or demand for services greatly exceeds the current capacity.The actions taken by the CAT would typically be those performed outside of normal network operations and administrative procedures.

Procedures

PHASED MILITARY RESPONSE

Typically a military response would be conducted in phases. The alignment of key military actions with the four disaster management phases are described below.

Military Phase 1: Reconnaissance/Activation/Mobilization. The principal activity (or main effort) is to gain an early accurate appreciation of the disaster. As a general rule, the military would seek to conduct this as a collaborative effort with the LA and use information gained to inform decision making. However, circumstances at the time may lead to military

activation and mobilization being initiated based on best available information and a more complete reconnaissance and assessment being carried out some days later (as was the case with ______20XX). The reconnaissance may be divided into two stages:

  1. Immediate Reconnaissance. This involves the rapid deployment of specialist personnel to quickly gain a picture of the situation and conduct a DNA to identify those areas in mostimmediate need. This will most likely be conducted immediately following the disaster and may require military air assets.
  1. Detailed Reconnaissance. Although the military may not specifically conduct the detailed reconnaissance, it may assist with transporting the required Other Government Agency/Non-Governmental Organization (OGA/NGO) expertise into the Area of Operations (AO). This reconnaissance may be conducted some hours or days after the disaster and is a more detailed assessment of the disaster relief requirement - it may include an assessment on key public infrastructure such as water, sanitation, energy, communications,transportation and critical facilities such as hospitals, ports, airfields and fuel storage facilities.

Military Phase 2: Deployment of Military Response. The size and scopeof capabilities to be deployed will flow from the reconnaissance and Disaster Needs Assessment (DNA).Given time imperatives it is likely that military aircraft if available, andproviding suitable airfields remain operational, will be used to deployimmediate response groups and heavy lift may be conducted with sealiftassets. Key tasks include:

1 The provision of appropriate military support to minimize loss of life or injury, and to provide for the welfare of the affected populace.

2 Close liaison with the lead agency (LA) to ensure unity of effort, coordinated response, and civil-military cooperation.

Military Phase 3: Sustainment. Key features include:

1 The provision of support to sustain the military contribution (and when directed, Other Government Agencies (OGA/s) deployed in Phase 2.

2 The duration of the military commitment will be influenced by the extent to which local authorities and community support systems have been disrupted, and will be decided by Government.

3 As soon as local authorities and community support systems have been sufficiently restored, the military would commence transfer of responsibility in preparation for Phase 4.

4 If this phase is a protracted one, military staff rotations will occur in order to rest personnel and deploy in fresh people to ensure continuous engagement in the disaster relief operation.

Military Phase 4: Redeployment. This phase involves:

1 The withdrawal and redeployment of the military back to home locations for reconstitution and reassignment to military operations.

2 The Government may decide that some niche military capabilities remain in the disaster area for an extended period in the event OGA and NGO systems require extended military capability presence to ensure delivery of essential services.

Standby Capabilities Military assets that may be deployed in support of emergency tasks, their Degree of Notice (DON), and broad tasks are described in Section 2.

Limitations. The availability of these capabilities is predicated on steady state operations and MOD/JCS commitments to other Government directed outputs at the time of the emergency.

Communication Networks

Figure 1: Standby Capability

Communications Networks: HADR community agencies have two broad communication customer groups – one is internal agency customers and the other is the external parties with whom they interface. Communications with external agencies continues to be problematic for the HADR community because a single national radio network as not yet been widely integrated. The broad approach taken by the military will revolve around:

Military – Internal: Internal military communication requirements will be met using standard military communication platforms, including secure and non-secure networks.

Military – Interagency: Interagency communication link-up will primarily be addressed by using mobile phone, land-line, internet, sat-phone and hand-held radio networks where available. Whilst not ideal this reflects the reality, and is a challenge to multi-agency coordination. The deployment of LOs can mitigate this limitation.

Communications Matrix: A matrix detailing the broad communication links the military will seek to establish is provided in Section 4. It serves to indicate what the military will first seek to establish with its internal agencies and dependent upon equipment compatibility, the military linkages with the wider HADR community.

Disaster Impacts on Quality SA: Expect SA to be degraded immediately following and during the initial andearly stages of a disaster – telephone line and even cellular phone voice connectivity is likely to be broken; cell networks text coverage may well be all that is functional and the primary means of communications in the first few hours after the event. Personnel should be encouraged to minimize non-essential use of communications.

Communication Networks Checklist

Table 1: Communications Network Checklist

What are the communication
requirements to support theoperation? /
  • To what extent are the militarycommunications platforms interactive? (e.g. secure/nonsecure;data, imagery, voice, etc.).
  • Consider the full span of themilitary organization from soldierat a checkpoint/aircraft on reconmission, sub-unit,unit/ship/squadron, formation/HQ MOD/JCS.
  • To what extent is military communications platforms/equipment compatiblewith the LA, OGAs and NGOs?
  • Consider the full span of themilitary organization from soldierat a checkpoint/aircraft on reconmission, sub-unit, unit/ship/squadron, formation/HQ MOD/JCS; and their ability tocommunicate with civil actorsstakeholders at their respectivelevels of response.
  • How will any communicationsgaps within the military andbetween civil actors at theirrespective levels of response, bemitigated?
  • Where are the communicationscompatibility bottle-necks andwhat are the implications forinter-agency communication andcoordination?

Communications: Post
Disaster
Achieving sustainable and reliablecommunications across thedisaster area between the militaryand supported agencies can beproblematic.
Cellular and landline networks areoften not available immediatelyafter a disaster or emergency land lines and optic cables can becut and the cellular networktemporarily overloaded. / As difficult as this may be, all use
of non-essential communications
equipment should be minimizedespecially immediately after adisaster or emergency.
Contingency plans that takeaccount of this should be producedand practiced.
Communications: Inter-Agency.
Currently Government isestablishing a Whole of
Government Radio Network withthe intent of achieving widercommunications connectivity
between government departments- this initiative is still in its infancyand can be expected to take some
years to complete.
Meanwhile there is an array ofcommunications systems in useby the HA/DR community – landline,
cellular, radio, internet,satellite telephone with varyingdegrees of secure, non-secure,and digital streaming capabilities. / HA/DR operations should manage
information as ‘Unclassified’ to thegreatest extent possible to enableeffective sharing.
While _Country Name_ completes itstransition to more comprehensiveinter-service (and inter-agencyconnectivity where possible), this
functional area is likely to remainproblematic for some time to come.
Rather
than focus on current equipment held, military HA/DRplanners should describe the
capabilities they wish to have andleave Communications andInformation Systems (CIS)planners to configure aCommunications network to suit current crisis.

Information Sharing with Other Agencies/Ministries Checklist

Table 2: Information Sharing

INFORMATION SHARING WITH OTHER AGENCIES CHECKLIST
Check / Activity
What kind of information should/could be shared, with whom and when? Who will decide what can be shared?
Should information that is shared with one military group be shared withall other military groups? How should we ensure that no side is favoredover another while being mindful of sensitivities involved in information?
Who will decide this?
When and how should we verify information provided by the military andindeed other agencies?
How can information that may be important for humanitarian purposes bedifferentiated from information that is militarily sensitive? Who willdetermine this?
What is classed as critical information and for whom?
What is classed as sensitive information and to whom?
What are the arrangements for the disposal of documents (e.g. planningdrafts, day-to-day paper waste, USB and similar memory devices)?
Is the communications bandwidth sufficient to permit streaming of datafrom organic sensors to the appropriate strategic, operational, and tacticallevel users of that data?
Is it timely?
How will a COP be established and what information is required fromLA/OGAs/NGOs?
How will the LA/OGAs/NGOs be incorporated into the military battlerhythm?
To what extent is military, LA, OGAs and NGOs communications,compatible? How will this impact task transition and transfer operations?
What are the means by which information will be shared? Is there aschedule for this? How will this be coordinated?

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