CBRN Exercise
« Stayin' Connected »

November 26 (2019)

Within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) B-LiFE Project, the B-LiFE consortium, with the cooperation of the Civil Protection who is member of B-LiFE, organized on 26 November 2019 a CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) exercise, called “Stayin’ Connected”. The exercise took place on the Civil Protection Compound of Brasschaat.

A clandestine laboratory producing biological agents was discovered in a trailer close to a fictitious winter music festival. The communication network in this area was saturated by this crowded event.

Within this scenario the goals were to train the specialized responders capacities in special circumstances, as well as to validate the mutual information and communication assets integrated / developed during the development of the B-LiFE project.

Specialized services from the Federal Police, Defence and the Civil Protection, as well as the CBRNe Centre of Expertise of the National Crisis Centre took active part in the exercise. This specific scenario required the deployment of a logistical Base of Operations to take appropriate actions like decontamination.

The B-LiFE consortium deployed during this exercise a local telecommunication hub integrating satellite communications with terrestrial communication networks TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) used by the different exercise players to communicate by voice and to exchange real-time data and video for reporting and coordination purposes, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and Earth Observation for geo-location and mapping and mission management tools for decision support.

The exercise implied the active participation of 80 coordinators and players. About 50 observers and VIPs from the United Kingdom, Germany, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO attended the exercise to further assess the operational and policy challenges in the field of emergency response and telecommunications.

All participants, observers and stakeholders congratulated the B-LiFE team for their achievements and the performances of their new capabilities.