Romania hosts NATO disaster response drills using virtual reality

A disaster response exercise bringing together experts from several countries, managed by NATO and using virtual reality takes place in Romania this week. NATO's Euro Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) and Romania, with support from the Joint Health Agriculture and Food Group (JHAFG) and the Civil Protection Group (CPG), are jointly organizing the exercise in Romania’s Targu Mures. The event, which started on July 4 and will end on July 7, simulates a large-scale emergency situation with multiple casualties and the evacuation of a large number of people. The exercise is a first for Romania, according to a statement from the Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU). The event takes place at the National Centre for Training and Simulation in Targu Mures, and consists of a virtual reality simulation of the disaster, followed by a seminar that will focus on identifying the best practices for increasing national intervention resilience to disasters. Representatives of the Interior Ministry from the Department of Emergency Situations, the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the Emergency Inspectorate for Emergency Situations of Mures County, and other operational structures represent Romania in the drill. Moreover, the Emergency Unit/SMURD of the County Emergency Hospital and the Ministry of Defense are also partners in the event. International teams will also be present in Targu Mures, from countries such as Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Norway, the US, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. A total of 17 countries will take part in the exercise. There will also be representatives of the NATO International Secretariat, the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (MILMED COE), the NATO Crisis Management and Disaster Response - Center of Excellence (CMDR COE), and NATO civilian experts. An entire virtual city was built for this event, a city that will host the exercise. The teams, including six foreign teams, will participate in the exercise with a commander and a crewmember. Each participant will have an avatar in the virtual reality that they can use to move around in the virtual environment where the large-scale emergency situations will occur. Search and rescue, triage, and decontamination missions will be part of the exercise. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com