[At the Strong Angel III demonstration], OSI showed up on time; showed up friendly; and showed up helpful. They were always present when needed and always helpful when asked. When other communications went down, OSI stepped up to the plate with a ‘can do’ attitude. The people were as nice as the technology was solid. Their operators obviously knew exactly what they were doing and the bottom line is, OSI’s capabilities always worked. In some sense they were so good, when we encountered problems we could assume “OSI will just take care of it.”
- Dr. Dave Warner MD/PHD, Operations Intelligence/Civil Military Communications
"OSI was one of the shining stars of the Strong Angel III demonstration. People were impressed with their team’s technical capabilities, professionalism, knowledge of the business and willingness to meet any challenge. OSI moved fast and their OP-Vs could be quickly deployed, providing satellite and physical wire connectivity to reinforce communications at the Emergency Operations Center within minutes of being asked. With presence at all three of the demonstration sites, OSI had a big job and they came through with flying colors. Their systems are nicely integrated, coordinated, manned and executed. It was obvious, they’d done this before."
- Professor Brian Steckler, Associate Chair for Special Programs, Naval Postgraduate School
“It was a pleasure working with you and your team today on Strong Angel 3 experiments. This was a great opportunity to field test both Groove and SSE (Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS) in the context of collecting and sharing disaster assessment data in a mesh of heterogeneous endpoints. Your mobile connectivity capabilities which were truly amazing, allowed us to share community baseline survey information collected remotely in Groove Forms in conjunction with our "pony express" SSE relay back to the operations center. This capability enabled a variety of systems in the ops center to create a meaningful situational awareness in near real time. Upon return to the ops center, I heard great stories of demonstrations which tracked our assessments throughout the day. There was great interest by the mapping solutions providers (Google, Virtual Earth and others) as a result of GPS coordinates being provided into the survey form which helps in the coordination of "what, where, when".
I hope we can continue to work with your teams this week, and in the future. These experiments allow us to test our solutions in-situ, and give us lots of lessons to bring back to the office in refining our solutions and services. Please share my appreciation with your team.”
- Jack Ozzie, General Manager, CSA Concept Development, Microsoft Corporation
OSI Diversified Mission Scopes
PRESS RELEASE FOR OSI STRONG ANGEL III
FOR RELEASE AUGUST 14th NOON, EST CONTACT: David Henderman
OSI NETWORK & SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP BRINGS RENOWNED MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS CAPABILITIES TO STRONG ANGEL III INTEGRATED DISASTER RESPONSE DEMO
Atlanta, GA, August 14, 2006 – OSI Network & Special Operations Group will provide award-winning mobile communications capabilities as part of Strong Angel III, a collaborative demonstration of civil and military cooperation and communication capabilities provided by a partnership of private companies, government agencies, humanitarian and relief agencies and universities.
Hosted by San Diego State University and taking place in San Diego August 21-26, Strong Angel III will field test effective means of delivering life-saving humanitarian relief and rapidly deployable communications systems in the wake of major disasters.
The Strong Angel III demonstration simulates the impact on information sharing in a real-world disaster. The demonstration will assume the context of a worldwide pandemic caused by a highly contagious virus, which is further complicated by a wave of cyber-attacks inflicted by terrorists that cripple critical local infrastructure and systems.
OSI brings to the demonstration state-of the-art early responder operations vehicles that deliver command, control, communications and intelligence capabilities in disaster areas. The vehicles are GPS-equipped and provide immediate satellite, VoIP, traditional telephone, wireless, and broadband Internet services. The vehicles are outfitted with digital and analog radio bridges and equipment to make disparate radio systems interoperable within minutes of arrival on a scene. OSI teams are trained to provide tactical support as well as humanitarian aid in a disaster situation.
OSI received a Congressional Recognition for its part in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
“We are eager to share the lessons we’ve learned using our Operations Vehicles during real world disasters including relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and a HAZMAT crisis in Atlanta,” said Steve Fox, CEO of OSI Network & Special Operations Group. “Strong Angel III is a critical demonstration to prepare for disasters and we are honored to bring our capabilities to support their efforts.”
The core site for Strong Angel III will be the operations center at the San Diego Fire Department Fire Rescue Training Facility site, located at the former Naval Training Center near downtown
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San Diego. San Diego State University’s Visualization Center will be a secondary location.
Strong Angel III team members will conduct field trials and demonstrations of solutions that address 49 specific humanitarian relief challenges – both technical and social – that have not yet been adequately overcome in real disaster relief efforts.
“In the wake of major incidents like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Southeast Asia, it is more important than ever to have an integrated response when disaster strikes,” said Eric Rasmussen, MD, director of Strong Angel III and professor at San Diego State University. “Public-and private-sector engagement in Strong Angel III is at remarkable levels, underscoring the significance of the task at hand and the commitment of everyone involved to work together to maximize preparedness and coordination efforts.”
Some of the demonstrations will include developing solutions for redundant power, adaptive communications, austere network communications, mobile workers, cross-organizational collaboration, mesh networking, satellite services, ephemeral workgroups, geospatial information systems, rapid assessment techniques, shared situational awareness, cyber-security, alerting tools, community informatics, machine-based translation for multi-lingual communication, and social network development.
Strong Angel III sponsors include Cisco Systems, CommsFirst, Microsoft, Save the Children, Bell Canada, Sprint Nextel, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
About OSI Network & Special Operations Group
OSI has been in the business of helping organizations and VIP's mitigate risk since 1990. OSI has assisted organizations by providing and developing Protection Plans for Executives, IT Network Security Plans, Vulnerability Assessments and Site Security Surveys. The team is staffed by veteran law enforcement, military and professional security personnel. OSI has been engaged in the fusion of tactical and technical operations and technologies. OSI teams have operated domestically and around the world and have tested and proven numerous levels of operational skills, programs and technologies.
About Strong Angel III
Strong Angel III is the third in a series of demonstrations that have taken place since 2000. The first two Strong Angel demonstrations were held in 2000 and 2004 in Hawaii associated with the joint Naval exercises called RIMPAC. The primary goals of Strong Angel III are to field-test and demonstrate effective means of delivering life-saving humanitarian relief in the wake of natural and man-made disasters, to foster close collaboration and communications between aid agencies, governments and military in providing disaster relief, to provide local communities with solutions that will help them cope with disasters more immediately and effectively, and to enable military forces to better prepare for and execute humanitarian relief efforts. Strong Angel III will issue a lessons-learned document on its website as soon as possible after conclusion of the demonstration. For more information on Strong Angel III and a listing of participating public- and private-sector organizations, please visit http://www.strongangel3.net/
If you are not concerned - you should be.
