Emergency Notification Deployed by Yokota Air Base, the First Base in the Pacific Air Forces to Deploy AtHoc IWSAlerts

AtHoc, Inc., provider of emergency notification systems, today announced that Yokota Air Base has completed the installation and deployment of AtHoc’s network-centric emergency notification system – AtHoc IWSAlerts™ Enterprise Edition. Located in Japan, Yokota is the first Air Force base in the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) to adopt AtHoc IWSAlerts. This deployment in the Pacific is the latest in a series of deployments at bases in other Air Force Major Commands.

The Air Force is dedicated to tight security at all of its bases to protect personnel and valuable assets, with particular attention paid to bases located outside the continental United States. The threat potential can be greater abroad than within the U.S., and emergency notification products play a critical role by immediately alerting base personnel about threats. At Yokota, once a threat is identified, the base Command Post and Crisis Action Team can distribute the information to the groups needing it with a detailed description of the threat and what actions to take.

AtHoc IWSAlerts is a network-centric offering that uses the existing technology network to quickly distribute alerts to installation personnel. The alerts, in the form of pop-up windows on a desktop or other mobile device, accompanied by an audio alarm, describe the potential threat, categorize the threat level and include instructions for action. Personnel receive alerts regardless of which application they are using as long as they are connected to the network. Once the alerts are distributed, the AtHoc system tracks which users acknowledged receipt of the alert.

These alerts comply with signals and messaging specifications appropriate to watches, warnings, evacuation routes, battle staff directives and other federal, Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Air Force and PACAF-specific emergency notifications.

Yokota’s Command Post and Crisis Action Team can now centrally create, manage and send alerts to any computer or device connected to the base’s network using a standard Web browser.
To activate emergency notification alerts, operators use the system’s Web-based operator console. Using this console, operators activate alerts from any computer connected to the base’s network. Web-based access is a crucial capability especially if the primary Command Post gets disabled during an emergency. The system can also be configured so that each operator has different rights to activate specific types of alerts. For example, some operators may be limited to activating weather alerts while others can only launch IT alerts.

The ability to manage operators’ user rights was especially important at Yokota, as it hosts multiple tenant agencies on base. Operators within these agencies must be able to activate alerts in the system, but target only personnel within their own agency.

AtHoc IWSAlerts can be tailored to support various concepts of operations (CONOPS) for specific operational scenarios by predefining alerts and associated target audiences. Pre-programmed alerts can be launched with a single click during a crisis. This further decreases the time between receiving word of a potential threat and alerting personnel.

“International installations must act as a virtual island,” explained Guy Miasnik, president and CEO of AtHoc. “While they can rely on their host countries for many things, the safety of base personnel is an Air Force responsibility. In an emergency, the base must respond within minutes or risk serious repercussions. A network-alerting system dramatically increases the likelihood the people who need to know information will know it with enough time to act.”

The contract was awarded to AtHoc through the Northrop Grumman NETCENTS contract vehicle. AtHoc’s offering was selected due to its comprehensive alerting and management capabilities, secure and open architecture and its ability to integrate with public address or telephony alerting.

AtHoc IWSAlerts is one of the few enterprise-class commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) network-centric alerting systems that have received Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Process (DITSCAP) certification. The product includes a specific library of audio-visual signals that comply with the Air Force’s Full Spectrum Threat Response (FSTR) requirements outlined in Air Force Instruction (AFI) 10-2501. Such signals cover force protection (FPCON) commands, warnings and other DoD and USAF emergency messages.

About AtHoc, Inc.
AtHoc provides enterprise-class, network-centric emergency alert systems for emergency notifications, force protection readiness, anti-terror warnings and critical communications. AtHoc offers a broad set of emergency alerting solutions for the government/defense agencies and commercial enterprises, including IWSAlerts™ for Network-Centric Emergency Notifications; C2Alerts™ for Targeted User Alerts in Command & Control / C4I Operations Center; KMAlerts™ for Knowledge and Intelligence Dissemination; and EmployeeAlerts™ for Corporate Emergency Communications. AtHoc has partnered with Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and IBM to bring these notifications solutions to the enterprise market. The U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boeing, eBay and Juniper Networks are some of the world-class organizations that have selected and deployed AtHoc for their critical enterprise notifications needs.

For more information on AtHoc’s Emergency Notification Systems, please visit http://www.athoc.com.