TO:	All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact All State Homeland Security Directors All Urban Area Core City/Core County Points of Contact
FROM:	Matt Mayer Acting Executive Director
SUBJECT:	Guidance for Developing Tactical Interoperable Communications Plans

The Department of Homeland Security, Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), is pleased to disseminate the attached Tactical Interoperable Communications Planning Guidance and Template, developed in coordination with the SAFECOM program. The FY 2005 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) guidance requires grantees to develop and test a plan to achieve tactical interoperable communications. The guidance also notes that this planning template would be released in concert with the National Preparedness Guidance, which is due for release under separate cover.

Grantees have six months from the release of the guidance to develop their tactical interoperable communications plan and one year following its submission in which to test it through multi-jurisdictional exercises. (Additional information is available on pages 51-53 of the FY 2005 HSGP Guidance.) Each urban area receiving FY05 UASI funds must develop and test a tactical interoperable communications plan. If a state does not have a designated urban area, then it must identify a metropolitan area to develop and test the plan. This metropolitan area should be the same metropolitan area tasked with developing a multi-jurisdictional prevention and response plan as part of the HSPD-8 implementation required by the FY 2005 HSGP guidance.

ODP will host three one-day, regional training workshops on the Tactical Interoperable Communications Planning Guidance and Template in conjunction with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Interoperable Communications Technology Program Workshop Series. These workshops will provide grantees with additional information on the planning process and will afford participants the opportunity to request support, if needed, through ODP's Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (ICTAP). The workshops are currently scheduled as follows:

Western Region: April 13 in Denver, Colorado
Central Region: June 3 in Columbus, Ohio
Eastern Region: July 14 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Invitation letters for the Western Region conference were disseminated on March 23, 2005. Copies of the invitation letter and attendee registration form are attached to this Information Bulletin. Invitations for the Central and Eastern Region conferences will be forthcoming. In the meantime, additional questions can be directed to either Keith Young, ICTAP Program Manager, at keith.young@dhs.gov or your State's assigned Preparedness Officer.