In order to help prevent the spread of travel-related cases of coronavirus in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf issued a Notice of Arrival Restrictions outlining the process for American citizens, legal permanent residents, and their immediate families who are returning home after recently visiting certain European countries, China, and Iran.
A diagnostic test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – designed for use in a diagnostic system that can process up to 1,000 tests in 24 hours – will receive advanced development support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
Every day, human and drug traffickers, smugglers, criminals, and terrorists attempt to enter the U.S. through one of 328 ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has implemented face comparison and ID validation verification technologies to drastically reduce the number of people that require direct screening by CBP officers.
As part of the government-wide efforts to respond to the global outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services intends to purchase 500 million N95 respirators over the next 18 months for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
FLIR Systems Inc. announced that the United States Air Force has ordered more than 180 of the company’s Centaur™ unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), plus spares. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams will use the FLIR Centaur to assist in disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs), unexploded ordnance, and similar hazardous tasks.
Longer fire seasons and expansion of communities into wildfire prone areas has led to an increased risk to life and property in the wildland urban interface (WUI). A national address point database could potentially be of value to incident commanders and emergency managers during wildfire evacuations by allowing for more precise mapping and evacuation modeling/zones, and improved information sharing.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service has changed the criteria that trigger a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) warning about an imminent flash flood. Flash flood warnings now have damage threat tags, so WEAs will be issued for only the most life-threatening flood events.
BAE Systems has received funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office to develop advanced analytics technology that will assist in the detection and deterrence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) activity, helping to ensure national security.
The threat posed by the use and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is rising, a Defense Department official told a House Armed Services Committee panel. China, “Russia, North Korea, Iran and violent extremist organizations have, or are pursuing, WMD capabilities that could threaten the United States or U.S. interests,” said Theresa Whelan, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf announced the release of Fiscal Year 2020 Notices of Funding Opportunity for eight DHS preparedness grant programs totaling nearly $1.8 billion. The grant programs provide funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, as well as transportation authorities, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, to improve the nation’s readiness in preventing, protecting against, responding to, recovering from, and mitigating terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies.
