TOPOFF

 TOPOFF(“counter-terrorism”,  Biological weapon/Preparation,  Planning exercise)  

Date	2000 - 2009
Interest of	US/Department/Homeland Security
Description	A series of week long "counter-terrorism" exercises

Top Officials (TOPOFF) was a series of week-long "anti-terrorism" drills by the Department of Homeland Security staging scenario planning around chemical and bioweapons attacks. which ran from 2000 to 2009.

TOPOFF 1

TOPOFF 1, in May 2000, modeled chemical-biological attacks in Denver, Colorado, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, exploring logistics for quarantining an entire state (Colorado). The executive summary complains that "stronger measures to protect the local Colorado citizens were not implemented" and warns that to survive such a disaster, the state must immediately take quick and decisive action to quarantine the population, including the enforcement of an unprecedented "no contact out of your home" policy that became the part of Covid twenty years later. </ref>

TOPOFF 2

TOPOFF 2 was the largest and most comprehensive terrorism response exercise ever conducted in the United States. The exercise scenario, which was played out from May 12 to May 16, 2003, depicted a fictitious, foreign "terrorist" organization that detonated a simulated radiological dispersal device (RDD) in Seattle, Washington, and released the Pneumonic Plague (Yersinia pestis) in several Chicago metropolitan area locations. There was also significant pre-exercise intelligence play, a cyber-attack, and credible terrorism threats against other locations. The exercise brought together top government officials from 25 federal, state, and local agencies and departments, and the Canadian Government to test the domestic incident management in response to WMD terrorist attacks in the United States.

TOPOFF 3

TOPOFF 3 was a "full scale exercise" (T3 FSE) which took place in April 2005 and involve more than 10,000 participants representing more than 200 Federal, State, local, tribal, private sector, and international agencies and organizations and volunteer groups, from Connecticut, New Jersey, United Kingdom and Canada.

Scenario outline

The TOPOFF 3 scenario will depict a complex terrorist campaign and drive the exercise play through the homeland security system, beginning in Connecticut and New Jersey, and leading to national and international response.

Over the course of several days fire personnel will conduct search and rescue, hospitals will treat the injured (played by role players), subject-matter experts will analyze the effects of the attack on public health, and top officials will deploy resources and make the difficult decisions needed to save lives.

An internal Virtual News Network (VNN) and news website will provide real-time reporting of the story like an actual TV network would. The mock media will keep players up-to-date on unfolding events and enable decision makers to face the challenge of dealing with the real world media. Only participating agencies can view the VNN broadcast.

TOPOFF 4

TOPOFF 4 involved over 23,000 participants from Federal, international, State, territorial, regional, tribal, local, volunteer, and private sector organizations. TOPOFF 4 was conducted from October 15-24, 2007, and simulated Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), or “dirty bomb” attacks in the Territory of Guam, Portland, Oregon, and Phoenix, Arizona. The scenario simulated casualties and widespread contamination, and although real weapons were not used, the response was mounted as if they had been. Three international partners participated in TOPOFF 4: Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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