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We are dedicated to improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of U.S. and International Disaster Relief Operations, especially where the U.S. works in collaboration with NGOs, IOs, and Foreign Governments. We focus primarily on researching a suite of communications equipment that is highly portable and self-sustaining through renewable energy sources.

NPS HFN Fly-away Kit Hardware and Capabilities List

Posted January 12, 2010 - 7:00pm by rrmeyer

Attached to this blog post is a list of the Fly-away Kits and associated hardware and software that the Hastily Formed Networks Research Group maintains in standby mode to deploy for disaster relief and for exercises. Feel free to contact our group (at the "Contact" link at the top of the page) for more information.

NPS HFN Hurricane Katrina Response

Posted January 12, 2010 - 6:59pm by rrmeyer

The Hastily Formed Networks Research Group responded to the disaster created by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of the United States. Below is a separate website we created to highlight our efforts there:

http://faculty.nps.edu/dl/HFN/index.htm

New DoD Instruction 3000.05 - Stability Operations

Posted September 23, 2009 - 2:11pm by Steckler

This is the new DoD Instruction that replaces the original DoD Directive 3000.05 which addresses some key relatively new mission sets for DoD to work better with NGOs, IOs, and UN Agencies -- Security/Stability/Transition/Reconstruction (SSTR) missions as well as Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) operations. It provides updated policy guidance and details responsibilities among other things. It is an important milestone policy document for anyone working SSTR and/or HA/DR missions whether within DoD or if you belong to an outside agency.

Comprehensive List of Exercises Led by US Department of Homeland Security & US Department of Defense

Posted August 13, 2009 - 10:10am by rrmeyer

Here are comprehensive lists of all US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Department of Defense (DoD) military and non-military exercises for fiscal year 2009 and beyond. (Thanks to our summer intern Tiffany for her hard work!) Click the "2 attachments" link below to download the data in HTML format. Feel free to contact me with questions.

HFN Learning Aid - "Disaster Challenge" Online Interactive Prototype Utility

Posted January 5, 2009 - 12:44am by Steckler

The Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey CA USA) HFN Research Group and Office of Continuous Learning have created a prototype flash/web based learning tool that in its final form will be available free to anyone. The tool, called "Disaster Challenge", features animated early responders deciding which equipment to bring to a disaster zone to enable rapidly deployed communications.

Canned info movie about the project, approx 7 minutes long - http://faculty.nps.edu/dl/HFN/DisasterChallengeConcept2/Disaster_Challenge_Concept.html

Robert Leitch: Bloody Hands and Bleeding Hearts – Civil Military Cooperation in Humanitarian Operations

Posted May 2, 2008 - 6:29am by HFNGroupAdmin


Robert Leitch and Friend at Rumbek Airfield

"[h]umanitarian agencies don’t mind coordinating
with the military but they don’t like being coordinated
by the military"

-Hugo Slim

It is almost a year ago today that I rather foolishly volunteered, without a second thought, to join a Project HOPE mission as the leader of a contingent of medical volunteers aboard the USNS COMFORT. The plan was for the hospital ship to visit twelve countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Project HOPE would provide a group of about twenty five volunteers at any one time.

During this Odyssey, I wrote a couple or articles. In one I described the mission as an exercise in what had become known as ‘Medical Diplomacy’ and promised I would examine the issue in depth at a later date. The key issues, it seemed to me, centered around the relationship between NGOs, in this case Project HOPE, and the US military and the US Navy in particular. Is this a good model for future humanitarian operations? What does the US Navy get from it? What do NGOs like Project HOPE get from it? Is this a flag waving exercise or does it provide long-term good for the recipient countries and their people? I have procrastinated for almost four months since the end of the COMFORT mission; herewith my observations.

Read the full story

An HFN Case Study: USNS Comfort (T-AH20) Humanitarian Outreach to the Caribbean and Central/South America (Summer 2007)

Posted January 22, 2008 - 11:50pm by HFNGroupAdmin

When President Bush sent the USNS Comfort hospital ship to 12 nations in the Caribbean and Central / South America as part of the “Partnership for the Americas” initiative, numerous research opportunities for NPS were created.

The Hastily Formed Networks (HFN) research group focuses on the social and technical aspects of human networks that form during collaborative Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HA/DR) efforts where the U.S. Military is involved. Typically, the human networks