Washington, DC - Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces (USFF) and Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) will conduct Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2015 (SC-CS15) Feb. 2-13 on Navy installations located in the continental United States.

This annual anti-terrorism force protection (ATFP) exercise is designed to train Navy Security Forces to respond to threats to installations and units.

"This is the largest force protection exercise conducted across the Department of Defense and the value of training events like this cannot be underestimated. This exercise enhances the training and readiness of our security personnel and first responders. Additionally, it creates an integrated learning environment for installation and afloat personnel to exercise functional plans and operational capabilities," said William Clark, CNIC's exercise program manager.

Exercise SC-CS15 is not in response to any specific threat, but is a regularly scheduled exercise. The exercise will consist of roughly 130 simultaneous field training exercise attacks across the country, each designed to test different regional ATFP operations.

"Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2015 provides an opportunity to assess the Navy's ability to respond to and recover from a broad spectrum of antiterrorism threats," said Capt. Greg Sandway, USFF ATFP exercise director. "One of the key components of the exercise is to improve our ability to protect our Navy equities, but this exercise also enables us to integrate with the emergency responders from the various local communities and establish coordinated response and recovery procedures that are mutually beneficial."

Measures have been taken to minimize disruptions to normal base operations, but there may be times when the exercise causes increased traffic around bases or delays in base access. Residents near bases may also see increased security activity associated with the exercise. Base personnel should register for the AtHoc wide area alert network if they have not already done so as this will keep them updated of force protection conditions and other emergency, environmental, or exercise-related impacts on the area.