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Attachment A FY05 HOMELAND SECURITY GRANT PROGRAM Issues surrounding interoperable communications were consistent themes in assessment data and homeland security strategies recently submitted to ODP by states and urban areas. In an effort to address these issues, many states have been proactive in developing statewide strategies or plans specific to the challenges of interoperable communications. In addition, ten urban areas recently participated in RapidCom 9/30, a program implemented in FY04 to help ensure that incident commanders in these localities have the ability to adequately communicate with each other and their respective command centers within one hour of an incident. Building on these successes, each urban area receiving FY05 UASI funds must develop a plan to achieve tactical interoperable communications across jurisdictions in the urban area and test the plan through the cycle of exercise activity required for the [ED scenario. Each state that does not have a designated urban area(s), it must use the same multi - jurisdictional metropolitan area or region designated to test the prevention and response plans discussed in Section C: HSPD -8 Implementation / Preventing and Preparing for Terrorist Attacks Involving Improvised Explosive Devices on page 49. For the purposes of this requirement, tactical interoperable communications is defined as the rapid provision of on- scene, incident - based mission critical voice communications among all first- responder (EMS, fire and law enforcement) agencies, as appropriate for the incident, and in support of Incident Command and Operations Section personnel as defined in the NIMS model. Tactical interoperable communications may be provided through the use of common equipment (common channels, cached radios or shared systems) or a gateway between dissimilar systems and /or radio frequency bands; it may use fixed and /or mobile /portable solution(s). Tactical interoperable communications must be rapidly deployable at any time (2417), and should be fully operational within an hour of an incident occurring. The state and /or urban area must become familiar with the features and problems that are inherent with the solution(s) they choose. Finally, no technical solution will work without trained support staff. The state and /or urban area must ensure that sufficient personnel are trained as Communications Unit Leaders, as defined within the NIMS, to support equipment deployment. Similar to the ]ED requirement, ODP will release specific guidance on the tactical interoperable communications requirement in concert with the SAFECOM Program Office and the release of the National Planning Guidance in March 2005. Grantees will have six months from the release of the guidance to develop the tactical interoperable communications plan based on the template provided by ODP and developed with SAFECOM. In order to make the most effective use of funding, tactical interoperable communications plans should always be in support of long -term interoperability by building upon or accelerating long -term strategies and efforts. The UASI jurisdictions that developed plans as part of their participation in the RapidCom 9/30 initiative will need to submit the plan developed as part of that process and validate that plan through the exercise requirement. These communications plans should take into account the State Homeland Security Strategies and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategies that have been submitted and are currently being implemented. Grantees will have one DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY I OFFICE FOR DOMESTIC PREPAREDNESS 51 r �f^ � h x