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Global Guardian is an annual training exercise sponsored by the
United States Strategic Command The United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for Strategic_nuclear_weap ...
in conjunction with
Air Force Space Command An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...
and
NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...
. Its main purpose is to test the military's command and control procedures in the event of
nuclear warfare Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...
. Global Guardian is performed in conjunction with "Vigilant Guardian", the annual training exercise conducted by NORAD in which a threat to North American airspace is simulated. The simulated scenario is varied from year to year.


Global Guardian and September 11 Attacks

The
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
on September 11, 2001 occurred during that year's Global Guardian and Vigilant Guardian joint exercises. That year, according to the ''
9/11 Commission Report ''The 9/11 Commission Report'', officially the ''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States'', is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prep ...
'', Vigilant Guardian 'postulated a bomber attack from the former
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
' on
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. The Russian
37th Air Army The 37th Air Army () of the High Supreme Command (Strategic Purpose) was the strategic bomber force of the Russian Air Force from 1998 to 2009. It was equipped with Tupolev Tu-95MS and Tu-160 armed with nuclear cruise missiles, and the intermediat ...
was, in fact, conducting major bomber exercises across the Arctic and Atlantic at this time, amongst the largest carried out by them since 1993. Both the American and the Russian exercises were cancelled after the attack. In contrast to the ''9/11 Commission Report'',
Michael Ruppert Michael Craig Ruppert (February 3, 1951 – April 13, 2014) was an American writer and musician, Los Angeles Police Department officer, investigative journalist, political activist, and peak oil awareness advocate known for his 2004 book ''Crossi ...
has characterized Vigilant Guardian as "a hijacking drill, not a cold war exercise". He cites direct quotes from participants which indicate "that the drill involved hijacked airliners rather than Russian Bombers". General Arnold, Tech. Sgt. W. Powel and Lt. Col. Dwane Deskins have stated that when they first were informed about hijacked airliners they thought it was ''"part of the exercise"''. This is also corroborated by tape recordings from the control room of NORAD's Northeast headquarters. "When they told me there was a hijack, my first reaction was 'Somebody started the exercise early,'" Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Nasypany told Vanity Fair author Michael Bronner . Bronner further writes:
"The day's exercise was designed to run a range of scenarios, including a "traditional" simulated hijack in which politically motivated perpetrators commandeer an aircraft, land on a
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
-like island, and seek asylum."
The
9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, to investigate all aspects of the September 11 attacks, the deadliest terrorist attack in world history ...
investigated the possibility that Vigilant Guardian preparations compromised the military's response to the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. They concluded that the exercise may have had, in fact, the effect of expediting the response to the attacks. According to page 17 of the ''9/11 Commission Report'', when the
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
’s
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
control center called the Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), NEADS response was "is this real world or exercise?". According to the 9/11 Commission's staff statement No. 17, for instance, page 26 of the commission's final report documents FAA's report of a "phantom flight 11" at 9:21,The 9/11 Commission Report
/ref> 35 minutes after the real flight 11 crashed into the WTC and even longer after the
war games A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...
are alleged to have been aborted. However, General Ralph Eberhart told the 9/11 Commission that "it took about 30 seconds" to make the adjustment to the real-world situation. The Vigilant Guardian war game was discussed in chapter 1, footnote 116 of the ''
9/11 Commission Report ''The 9/11 Commission Report'', officially the ''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States'', is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prep ...
'':
"On 9/11, NORAD was scheduled to conduct a military exercise, Vigilant Guardian, which postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. We investigated whether military preparations for the large-scale exercise compromised the military's response to the real-world terrorist attack on 9/11. According to General Eberhart, "it took about 30 seconds" to make the adjustment to the real-world situation. Ralph Eberhart testimony, June 17, 2004. We found that the response was, if anything, expedited by the increased number of staff at the sectors and at NORAD because of the scheduled exercise. See Robert Marr interview (Jan. 23, 2004)."


References

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External links


Strategic Command on 9/11
at
Offutt AFB Offutt Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the ...
, from a Major at the
Air Force Weather Agency An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...
.
'' Amid Crisis Simulation, `We Were Suddenly No-Kidding Under Attack
a

- account of 9/11 at the
Northeast Air Defense Sector The Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) is a United States Air Force unit of Air Combat Command (ACC), permanently assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). A joint, bi-national military organization, EADS is composed of U ...
headquarters near
Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lie ...

Vanity Fair - 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes
see notes to Chapter 1, Note 116.

at the
NTI The Nuclear Threat Initiative, generally referred to as NTI, is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. NTI was founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and philanthropist Ted Turner and describes itself as a "a nonprofit, ...
Military exercises involving the United States North American Aerospace Defense Command