1-22. Building and sustaining national preparedness comprises a range of ongoing activities in the areas of public outreach, federal preparedness efforts, grants and technical assistance, and research and development. National preparedness is a continuous improvement area that is inherently under assessment, review, and improvement. A key component of building and sustaining national preparedness is the National Exercise Program. The National Exercise Program serves as the principal mechanism for examining the preparedness and readiness of the United States across the entire homeland security and management enterprise. The purpose of the National Exercise Program is to design, coordinate, conduct, and evaluate exercises that rigorously test the Nation’s ability to perform missions and functions that prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. (See the FEMA National Exercise Program for more information).