Jan. 21, 2010
By Capt. Angela Young, NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command put their skills into practice during a pandemic exercise, which ran Jan. 11-14.

Exercise NOVEL STRAIN is a USNORTHCOM Commander directed Tier 1 command post
exercise focused on operations in a Pandemic Influenza environment. PI
is a relatively new mission assigned to combatant commands
and services, and as such, NORAD and USNORTHCOM created a phased
approach to train and exercise PI contingency plans and directives.

NOVEL STRAIN is the first Pandemic Influenza command post exercise conducted
by NORAD and USNORTHCOM. It was preceded by two PI table top exercises
that helped develop the commands’ understanding of Pandemic Influenza.
NOVEL STRAIN will further validate the commands’ ability to operate in
a Pandemic Influenza environment.

Col. Jay Neubauer, Command Surgeon for NORAD and USNORTHCOM, said that his directorate provides
advice and guidance to the commander on medical issues, as well as
planning for and sourcing medical assets that establish medical
capabilities needed in the field to support homeland defense operations
or defense support to civil authorities.
In regard to NOVEL STRAIN, he says, “we are focused, in large part, on
what we would do internally to maintain capability and capacity.”

The exercise is designed to train NORAD and USNORTHCOM Headquarters
directorates, Special Staff, Components, Subordinates, NORAD Regions,
the five Pandemic Influenza Regional Joint Task Forces and other
exercise participants. In accordance with the commander’s direction,
NOVEL STRAIN emphasizes real-world operations and mission critical
functions and tasks, while operating in a degraded environment due to
the effects and impact of a Pandemic Influenza outbreak.

U.S. Northern Command was established to provide command and control of Department of Defense homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support of civil
authorities. NORAD is a bi-national United States and Canadian
organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and
aerospace control for North America. For more information on the
commands, please visit www.northcom.mil or www.norad.mil.