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The threat level in the airline sector is High or Orange. Read more.
Top Officials (TOPOFF) is the nation’s premier terrorism preparedness exercise, involving top officials at every level of government, as well as representatives from the international community and private sector. Thousands of federal, state, territorial, and local officials engage in various activities as part of a robust, full-scale simulated response to a multi-faceted threat.
The exercise addresses policy and strategic issues that mobilize prevention and response systems, require participants to make difficult decisions, carry out essential functions, and challenge their ability to maintain a common operating picture during an incident of national significance.
TOPOFF was mandated by Congress in an effort to engage Top Officials in the decision making processes they would face in a real world disaster – from public health concerns to communications issues among agencies and the media.
Each TOPOFF builds on lessons learned from previous exercises and real world disasters, thus ensuring that participants face successively more sophisticated and challenging exercises.
Exercises such as TOPOFF are an important component of national preparedness, helping to build an integrated federal, state, territorial, local, and private sector capability to prevent terrorist attacks, and rapidly and effectively respond to, and recover from, any terrorist attack or major disaster that does occur. The full-scale exercise offers agencies and jurisdictions a way to test their plans and skills in a real-time, realistic environment and to gain the in-depth knowledge that only experience can provide. Participants will also exercise prevention and intelligence gathering functions, which are critical to preventing terrorist attacks. Lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters, and other emergencies.
This page was last reviewed/modified on October 6, 2008.