Citadel Shield/Solid Curtain 2023 - We train to Defend

WASHINGTON - In the face of emergency situations it is imperative that security personnel are ready to defend and protect. Citadel Shield/Solid Curtain 2023, scheduled for February 6 through the 17th, is one of the Navy’s primary vehicles for ensuring that its security personnel have all the tools necessary to respond to changing and dynamic threats.

Naval installations in the National Capital Region such as Naval Support Activity (NSA) Washington, NSA Bethesda, NSA Annapolis, and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, and NSA South Potomac will participate in the yearly, two-part anti-terrorism and force protection (ATFP) exercise designed to test the effectiveness of the installations readiness and training programs.

“During CS23, assessment of command, control and communications processes and procedures will identify gaps and seams within the FP communications architecture,” said Matt Brown, training and exercise director for Naval District Washington. “CS23 will also assess other primary mission capabilities such as fleet and family readiness, fire and emergency services, emergency preparedness and safety to integrate the response to a terrorist or insider threat attack.”

The first week of February 6 - 10 emergency responders on Navy installations will engage in Citadel Shield. During this week, all of the field training will be focused on the installation level with a variety of scenarios such as active shooter, unauthorized base access, suspicious package, and unmanned aerial surveillance.

“This year we are really focusing on lessons learned from previous exercises and not letting anything fall through the cracks,” said Brown. “We're going to be running active shooter drills, emergency management teams will be involved and we’re looking at new technologies this year as well.”

The second week of February 13-17 is the Solid Curtain portion of the exercise which will focus on many different scenarios at a national level led by United States Fleet Forces Command. During this week, base force protection conditions or FPCON levels will change with training evolutions happening for each day. This will cause increased traffic with gates and parts of installations being closed off at certain times throughout the exercise.

“It’s going to be an extremely busy two weeks on all of the installations with how many people and commands are involved in the exercises,” said Brown. “Installation training teams and regional training teams are involved. Our primary focus being our law enforcement, fire and emergency services, along with our fleet and family team to assess how they respond to various incidents.”

It is also important that personnel pay attention to important notifications during CS/SC23 by registering for the Wide Area Alert Network (WAAN). NDW personnel should also familiarize themselves with their command or tenant command anti-terrorism plan to be familiar with what to expect during the exercise.

Register for the WAAN at
https://ndw.cnic.navy.mil/waan/

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