Force protection equipmentForce Protection Equipment Consortium to meet in mid-May
Held every two years since 1997, the collaborative effort between government and more than 575 exhibitors from U.S. and allied industries known as the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration will feature more than 3,000 commercial off-the-shelf items of equipment and systems for countering terrorism
If it's for force protection, it's at FPED // Source: dda-direct.com
Held every two years since 1997, the collaborative effort between government and more than 575 exhibitors from U.S. and allied industries known as the Force Protection Equipment Demonstration (FPED VIII) will feature more than 3,000 commercial off-the-shelf items of equipment and systems for countering terrorism. The private event will be held at Stafford Regional Airport in Northern Virginia, forty miles south of the Pentagon, on 17-19 May.
The event will only be showcasing items available for procurement and testing within ninety days of the event’s ending. Leaders and other decision-makers in defense, homeland security, nuclear security, and first-response, as well as officials in state and local law enforcement, physical security and first-responder organizations, and defense and homeland security media will be attending the event.
Sponsored foreign personnel may also attend. Military and civilian personnel in command, physical security, and first response positions are encouraged to attend and see the latest in immediately available integrated force protection, anti-terrorist, and first-response solutions presented in twenty equipment categories.
Administered by the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs/Nuclear Matters, DoD’s Physical Security Equipment Action Group will direct and sponsor the demonstration. Additional sponsors include the U.S. Department of Energy and the Technical Support Working Group. The demonstration is coordinated and executed by the U.S. Army Product Manager, Force Protection Systems.
Due to increasing terrorist strikes against U.S. forces and diplomatic posts at that time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff determined a need for frequent reviews of potential solutions for countering the expanding array of weapons and delivery methods being developed and employed by terrorists. In the years since the first FPED, increases in acts of terrorism and attempted terrorist attacks have been directed toward U.S. and allied troops and civilians in combat zones and domestic settings, both in their homelands and abroad. The most deadly was the use of commercial airliners as weapons on 9/11. In counter-terrorism planning, authorities now have to consider improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, explosives placed aboard cargo and commercial passenger aircraft, suicide bombers, and direct assaults with small arms or heavy weapons.
FPED VIII attendees will have opportunities to examine the best available force protection equipment and systems for countering those types of weapons and attacks. Security systems and equipment demonstrated for counterterrorism and first-response authorities at earlier editions of the Force Protection Equipment Demonstrations are now in use by U.S. and allied agencies around the world.
The FPED VIII theme, “Force Protection through Integrated Physical Security Solutions,” reflects a growing emphasis on mutually supporting resources to meet current and evolving force protection needs, anti-terrorist requirements, and the demands of an increasingly broad range of security challenges.
