Hotwash

A hotwash is a military and government term used to describe the "after-action" discussions and evaluations of an agency's (or multiple agencies') performance following an exercise, training session, or major event, such as Hurricane Katrina. [cite web |url=http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/4/111442/8437 |title=Katrina: Hotwash vs. Whitewash |publisher=TPMCafe |accessdate=2007-11-29 |date=2004-09-04 |author=Johnson, Larry]

The main purpose of a "hotwash" session is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the response to a given event, which then leads to another governmental phase known as "lessons learned," which is intended to guide future response direction in order to avoid repeating errors made in the past. A "hotwash" normally includes all the parties that participated in the exercise or response activities. These events are used to create the After Action Review.

References

For an example of "hotwash" in the context of "TOP OFF 1" see [http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/index_topoff1.htm]