REVOLUTIONIZING TRAINING FOR MILITARY AND HOMELAND SECURITY

Helicopter Airlift Casualty Recovery Exercise

In a significant development for military and homeland security training, RSCS’s SIM-Teq® technology marked its presence at the Defense Urban Terrain large-scale US military exercise in Nashville, TN, in August 2023. This groundbreaking event saw the participation of approximately 800 soldiers and airmen along with local first responders, engaging in a comprehensive training exercise designed to prepare them for high-stakes environments involving gamma radiation threats.

SIM-Teq was deployed across three critical simulated scenarios:

1. High-rope rescue and helicopter airlift casualty recovery

2. Collapsed tunnel victim recovery

3. Recovery of terror attack victims in the overhead catwalks of a stadium

The simulated gamma sources placed near victims emitted very high dose rates to mimic the danger of unshielded gamma sources, providing a realistic and challenging environment for the responders equipped with SIM-Teq RDS-31TDs, serving as electronic dosimeters, survey instruments, and Teledyne FLIR R425 radionuclide identification devices (RIDs). The exercise’s goal was to enable participants to measure high dose rates and manage doses nearing their turn-back criteria over three intense days of military briefings and hands-on operations.

Collapsed Tunnel Recovery Exercise