TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and Airmen from the 181st Intelligence Wing, Indiana Air National Guard, conducted training missions on April 25, 2013 to test the combined capability of both organizations to provide Incident Awareness and Assessment (IAA) to civilian disaster first responders.
The 181st Intelligence Wing routinely trains with the CAP as part of the Indiana Air National Guard State civil support mission. Currently the CAP is flying training missions in Indiana Department of Homeland Security District 7 and District 10. Each sortie includes a CAP pilot in a Cessna 182/GA8 aircraft with two Air National Guard Airmen providing imagery support. Training routinely includes imaging and assessing infrastructure affected by simulated natural disasters. This week however, the training images will focus on areas affected by the current flood conditions in the Wabash Valley to Evansville, Ind.
The 181st Intelligence Wing utilizes a Geospatial Information Interoperability Exploitation Portable (GIIEP) kit to send images via a 3G capability to a central server. Once sent to the server, 181st Intelligence Wing Airmen can access the imagery and in the near future, provide IAA to incident commanders on the status of flood waters, levees, and damage to infrastructure. The GIIEP system provides the capability to integrate multiple forms of data to include aerial and terrestrial data into a common operating picture, to support disaster response operations.
"Training with the Civil Air Patrol and the GIIEP kit will allow us to quickly respond and assess natural disasters," stated Air Force Maj. Craig Maschino, 181st Intelligence Wing Indiana Air National Guard. "It also allows us to streamline our process and correct any problems we discover."
The 181st Intelligence Wing's capability to provide IAA to disaster response is limited, but increasing rapidly. Training events like those this week keep the Racers "Ready, Reliable, and Relevant," and increase the 181st Intelligence Wing's ability to rapidly assist the citizens of Indiana now and in the future.