EXPLOSIVES THREATBetter Resources to Mitigate Explosive Threats

Every second counts when responders encounter an explosive device, and critical decisions must be made quickly in order to neutralize the threat while also ensuring the security of civilians, property, and the responders themselves. Knowledge is power, as they say, and the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) will soon roll out a state-of-the-art database that will give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subject matter experts (SMEs) and frontline personnel access to information that is essential to mission success. ExPRT will provide SMEs, first responders, and members of the explosives research community with quick and easy access to relevant scientific and research, development, test, and evaluation data spanning from the early 2000’s to present.

“Over the past 20 years, DHS and its partners have invested more than $60 million in basic and applied research that has resulted in critical findings and the development of groundbreaking tools and technologies that have helped to prevent or mitigate countless explosive threats,” said S&T’s Explosives Threat Assessment (ETA) Program Manager Dr. Anna Tedeschi. “However, as we look to the future of this field, we’ve run into a new challenge: finding a way to effectively organize, compile, and share this information to ensure ongoing collaboration, avoid conducting repetitive or unnecessary studies, prevent institutional memory loss, and to strategically plan and budget program investments in future research to close knowledge or technology gaps.”

To address this unique challenge, Dr. Tedeschi and SMEs from S&T’s Modeling and Simulation Technology Center (MS-TC) performed a series of evaluations to derive a solution that would accomplish this goal and at the same time facilitate new conversations about how to best address potential explosives threats as we look to the future. After determining a best path forward to share this vital information, ETA and MS-TC SMEs approached the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP) to collaborate on the opportunity. OBP was immediately interested, proposing the Technical Resource for Incident Prevention (TRIPWire) Portal as a platform for developing, prototyping and hosting ExPRT to ensure it remains a secure, web-based one-stop-shop for the explosives research community. 

“ExPRT provides critical explosives research to our SMEs who need it the most,” explained

 Dr. Tedeschi. “Once implemented it will vastly improve our collaborative efforts to continue protecting the nation from any future explosive threats, and also serve as a resource for ensuring best practices.”