D.C. Metro 3-Year Exercise Program

Perses Consulting was awarded a multi-year contract to support the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), through Metro’s Integrated Command and Coordination Center (MICC) Consequence Management team, in the planning, design, conduct, evaluation, and continuous improvement of Metro’s three-year exercise program.

Metro operates an extensive heavy rail/subway and bus network serving Washington, DC and jurisdictions throughout Maryland and Virginia. As the nation’s only tri-jurisdictional transportation agency, Metro operates within the complex National Capital Region (NCR) environment, requiring extensive coordination with local, state, regional, and federal public safety, emergency management, transportation, and security partners.

Perses was contracted to support a three-year exercise series consisting of up to 18 tabletop exercises and nine full-scale exercises addressing safety and security incidents affecting Metro facilities and transit services. Perses provides comprehensive HSEEP-based support across the exercise lifecycle, including project management, stakeholder coordination, scenario and objective development, exercise documentation, facilitation and control, logistics, evaluation, Hot Washes, After Action Reports/Improvement Plans (AAR/IPs), and improvement planning.

Since the program’s inception, Perses has planned and executed a robust portfolio of multi-jurisdictional exercises involving Metro and regional partners in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, and Fairfax County, among others. Scenarios have addressed active shooter incidents, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), battery-electric bus failures, severe weather, civil unrest, coordinated cyberattacks, and other complex threats. Perses has also developed and conducted a three-part MICC Command Line Functional Exercise series, with a second iteration in development, and Presidential Inauguration security workshops.

Perses’s support extends beyond individual exercises to Metro’s broader preparedness and continuous improvement efforts, including standardized AAR documentation and special-event and incident coordination planning for the July 4th 250th Anniversary, severe weather, coordinated attacks, and other high-consequence scenarios. Through this ongoing partnership, Perses has developed extensive institutional knowledge of Metro’s operations, plans, procedures, stakeholders, and regional partnerships, enabling our team to deliver realistic, operationally relevant preparedness and exercise support.

Exercise Support to Date

Bus Active Shooter Exercise Package

• Tabletop Exercise – September 26, 2024

• Full Scale Exercise – November 3, 2024

Inauguration Exercise Support

• Workshop # 1 – December 11, 2024 (Cyber)

• Workshop # 2 – January 14, 2025 (Civil Unrest)

Montgomery County, MD Exercise Package

• Tabletop Exercise – February 26, 2025

• Full Scale Exercise – April 27, 2025

Battery Electric Bus Exercise Package

• Seminar Exercise – August 7

• Tabletop Exercise – September 10

• Full Scale – March 8, 2026 (update)

Fairfax County IED Exercise Package

• Workshop – October 28, 2025

• Full Scale Exercise – December 7, 2025

MICC Command Line Functional Exercise

• Overall Exercise Series Development

• Functional Exercise # 1 – October 23

• Functional Exercise # 2 – October 30

• Functional Exercise # 3 – November 6

• Functional Exercise Series After Action Report

MICC Command Line Functional Exercise (V2)

• Functional Exercise # 4 – April 23

• Functional Exercise # 5 – April 30

Infrastructure, Operations, Communications Exercise

• Tabletop Exercise - September 29. 2025

Fairfax County Exercise Package

• Tabletop Exercise – February 24, 2026

• Full-scale Exercise – May 31, 2026

Prince George’s County Exercise Package

• Tabletop Exercise – June 5, 2026

• Full-scale Exercise – Fall 2026

Internal Cybersecurity Exercise

• Tabletop Exercise

Severe Weather Exercise

• Seminar / Workshop (support) – May 19

Continuity of Operations Plan Support

• COOP 101 Workshop – August 26, 2025

• COOP Coordinator Workshop

• COOP Notification Workshop

• COOP Notification Drill

Planning-related Support to Date

• Initial Coordination Plan Review

• EOP review and format update

• COOP document review and update

• Flood Workshop Support

• EMAP Support

• COOP Job Aid Update

• Winter Weather Seminar Support

• Special Event SOP / Coordination Support

• Severe Weather Plan Reformat

• July 4th Coordination Plan

• Weekend Coordination Plan

• Severe Weather Plan

• Coordinated Attack Scenario Development

• After Action Report Template

• Digital modernization seminar and workshop support