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Antiterrorism Criticality Assessments

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

What is it?

An antiterrorism criticality assessment addresses the effect of temporary or permanent loss of key assets or infrastructures on the installation or a unit’s ability to perform its mission.

The Army antiterrorism awareness theme for the first quarter (October through December) fiscal year 2015 (1Q/FY15), is Antiterrorism Criticality Assessments. Army Protection Program Assessments (APPA) conducted during FY13 and FY14 identified the need to increase understanding of the subject to ensure appropriate measures are taken to protect Army personnel, information, and resources from acts of terrorism.

What has the Army done?

The Army is focused on antiterrorism criticality assessments in order to increase leader and staff understanding of the importance of these assessments and to reinforce the need for a common approach to conducting them. The information and conclusions from the criticality assessment process identifies the relative importance of a wide range of assets at the installation level in order to inform decisions to apply protection resources.

  • The Antiterrorism Enterprise Portal (ATEP) contains extensive products and resources for Army-wide antiterrorism awareness initiatives. The primary product supporting this quarterly theme is a white paper which expresses the following key points regarding antiterrorism criticality assessments:
  • – Definition of the problem and common areas of concern
  • – Reviews DOD, Joint, and Army policy (AR 525-13, Standard 5) and doctrine for antiterrorism criticality assessments
  • – Benefits of an effective criticality assessment to prioritize resources for the protection of Army assets
  • – Logical process for completing a criticality assessment and the use of the information to inform resource allocation
  • – Establishes characteristics of an effective criticality assessment
  • – Includes examples of case studies and historical vignettes for the purpose of reinforcing the importance of criticality assessments and the associated risks

What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?

  • The other antiterrorism quarterly awareness themes and focus areas for FY15 include:
  • – 2Q/FY15: Antiterrorism Operation in Field Units
  • – 3Q/FY15: Antiterrorism AOR Awareness
  • – 4Q/FY15: Antiterrorism Training
  • – August 2015: Observance of Antiterrorism Awareness Month (pre-decisional)

Why is this important to the Army?

Given the persistent threat of terrorism the Army’s antiterrorism efforts must remain proactive and the entire Army community must be involved and remain vigilant. Criticality assessments represent a key step in understanding what assets are most important to support mission execution and arms leaders with the knowledge necessary to apply the appropriate protection-related resources at the right time and place.

Resources:

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