Being Where it Matters Most: Tactical & Innovative NWS Support for Two Statewide Military Exercises

The National Weather Service (NWS) continues to turn the tide for specialized Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) by embedding meteorological impact and communication expertise in military, state, and county exercises. With onsite deployment and remote support, the NWS enhances both real-world weather impact safety and development of injects to enhance exercise realism. This embedded support is critical to ensure that key impact weather messaging, monitoring of operating thresholds, and hazard timing are properly communicated to maximize awareness, as well as personnel and asset protection. In 2023, four Wyoming NWS offices coordinated to support two large-scale functional statewide exercises known as Agile Chariot and Vigilant Guard. These two exercises involved the use of 4th and 5th generation fighter aircraft, remotely piloted aircraft, and helicopters, as well as over 300 actively moving Air Force, Army, Wyoming National Guard, and civilian personnel across six staging points over multi-day periods. The Agile Chariot exercise’s purpose was to validate Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) combat readiness by conducting state highway landings with numerous aircraft. The Vigilant Guard exercise scenarios ranged from a large dam failure; a tornado impacting a densely-populated outdoor event causing a train derailment resulting in a cascading hazmat incident; a wildfire; and local riot control. Several NWS meteorologists deployed to staging areas and delivered constant real world weather impact updates, with others providing timely remote support exercise injects. NWS offices developed a Master Scenario Event List (MSEL) of 100+ weather exercise injects, including: flash flood watches/warnings, flood inundation modeling, tornado warnings, social media images, hazmat plume modeling, and Decision Support Service (DSS) packets. These exercises provide the foundational experience necessary for the NWS’s deeper evolution into IDSS core partner support.