“Trouble: U.S. Sets “DEFCON 3″
“At 9:43 PM Eastern US (Sunday, June 19) the Armed Forces of the United States were reportedly
ordered to set condition “DEFCON 3.” This is an extraordinary
development and signals serious trouble, LIKELY requiring an expedited
military response.
The defense readiness condition (DEFCON)
is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. The DEFCON
system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and unified and
specified combatant commands. It prescribes five graduated levels of
readiness (or states of alert) for the U.S. military. It increases in
severity from DEFCON 5 (least severe) to DEFCON 1 (most severe) to match
varying military situations. The chart below explains the system –
click the image to enlarge.
To understand the severity of DefCon 3,
it would help to realize that on September 10, 2001, the US Military was
at DefCon 5. When the attacks of September 11 took place, the US
Military was upgraded only to DefCon 4. For the US to have implemented
DefCon 3 at 9:43 PM EDT on a Sunday night, means something very big is
taking place.
UPDATE 5:56 AM EDT:
At 10:14 PM EDT last night “Unusual strategic activity” was observed in Russia.
At 10: 25 PM EDT last night, “We do not know what Russia is reacting to; nothing observable in any operations theater.”
At 11:01 PM last night “Unusual United
States strategic activity now being observed. Source reports to
SuperStation95 “I have no context for any of this. I do not know why
this is taking place.”
At 11:32 PM last night “Multiple sources verifying information. Still looking for more – information is still sketchy.”
UPDATE 6:08 AM EDT:
At 12:38 AM EDT this morning “Multiple, solidly reliable confirmations of DEFCON-3″
At 1:35 AM EDT this morning “RC135V has
just left from Mildenhall (UK) to do a flyover of large armored and
infantry movements across Russia. We are getting word of movement from
ALL 4 MILITARY DISTRICTS! Also seeing a pattern of almost all Russian
military Satellites changing position.
At 1:42 AM EDT – Very long coded message over US “SkyKing” network 8992 KHz
At 1:50 AM EDT – OSINT and other sources indicate that the US military has gone into full nuclear readiness mode.
• Military channels are transmitting unusual encrypted messages at 11175 Khz.
•Sources indicate that multiple armed US
bombers are in the air. Some bases no longer have any grounded
aircraft. Fighters are also in the air.
•Local civilians are making report of increased activity at US military bases across the country.
• DWS has moved to DEFCON 3, DWS sources have been confirmed by WM sources.
• US response appears to be a reflection of Russian activities, based on available information.
•Buzzer at 4625 KHz is no longer active.
At 2:05 AM EDT this morning “It’s
official, there is some type of Crisis. Numerous, extremely high level
officials arriving at Pentagon.”
At 2:23 AM EDT this morning B52 activity
overheard via LiveATC.com ATC feed. Nothing further other than they are
active from ANDERSEN AFB, Guam
At 2:45 AM EDT – NATO Military activity taking place in the Baltics.
At 3:00 AM EDT this morning – “NATO Movements underway. Still no info about the actual nature of the “Crisis.”
At 4:23 AM EDT this morning – We are
beginning to receive information from our European sources that several
fighter launches have taken place in Europe. Unknown if related to the
current situation or for a drill.
U.S. and Russian forces are in the air,
likely moving to control points. We have no reports of any engagements.
Domestic assets are moving into defensive positions.
Possibly Related Material (Updates Continue Below Following This Related Material):
American and Russian fighter jets had a
tense showdown in the skies above Syria as the Russians dropped bombs on
U.S.-backed rebels. U.S. and Russian fighter jets bloodlessly tangled
in the air over Syria on June 16 as the American pilots tried and failed
to stop the Russians from bombing U.S.-backed rebels in southern Syria
near the border with Jordan. The aerial close encounter underscores just
how chaotic Syria’s skies have become as Russia and the U.S.-led
coalition work at cross-purposes, each dropping bombs in support of
separate factions in the five-year-old civil war. The near-clash also
highlights the escalating risk of American and Russian forces actually
coming to blows over Syria, potentially sparking a much wider conflict
between the world’s leading nuclear powers.
The incident began when at least two
twin-engine Su-34 bombers, some of Moscow’s most advanced warplanes,
struck what the Pentagon described as a “border garrison” housing around
200 U.S.-supported rebels in At Tanf on the Syrian side of the
Syria-Jordan border. The rebels had been “conducting counter-ISIL
operations in the area,” the Pentagon stated on June 18, using an
alternative acronym for ISIS.
The United States and its allies in
Syria clearly did not expect the air strike. The rebels in At Tanf are
party to a shaky ceasefire agreement between rebel forces and the regime
of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad—and, by extension, the Russian
military contingent backing Al Assad. The Los Angeles Times reported
that Russian planes had not previously been active over At Tanf. The
Su-34s’ initial strike wounded, and perhaps killed, some of the rebels
in At Tanf.
The U.S. Navy scrambled F/A-18 fighters
to intercept the Russians, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Navy has
deployed two aircraft carriers to the region for strikes on ISIS. As the
F/A-18s approached the Su-34s, officials with U.S. Central
Command—which oversees America’s wars in the Middle East and
Afghanistan—used a special hotline to contact their Russian counterparts
directing Russia’s own intervention in Syria.
Arriving over At Tanf, the American
pilots apparently spoke directly to the Russian aviators. “Pilots CAN
communicate with one another on a communications channel set up to avoid
air accidents,” Central Command confirmed in a statement to The Daily
Beast. Washington and Moscow had established the hotline as part of a
so-called “Safety of Flight Memorandum of Understanding” that the two
governments signed in October specifically in order to avoid the kind of
aerial confrontation that occurred over Syria last week.
With the American jets flying close
enough to visually identify the Su-34s, the Russians departed the air
space over At Tanf. Some time shortly thereafter, the F/A-18s ran low on
fuel and left the area in order to link up with an aerial tanker.
That’s when the Su-34s reportedly returned to At Tanf —and bombed the
rebels again. According to the Los Angeles Times, the second strike
killed first-responders assisting survivors of the first bombing run.
The next day, senior U.S. Defense
Department officials organized an “extraordinary” video conference with
Russian counterparts to discuss the incident. The meeting included
Acting Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs Elissa
Slotkin and U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, a strategic
planner on the Pentagon’s joint staff, plus unspecified Russian Ministry
of Defense officials.
“Department officials expressed strong
concerns about the attack on the coalition-supported counter-ISIL forces
at the At Tanf garrison, which included forces that are participants in
the cessation of hostilities in Syria, and emphasized that those
concerns would be addressed through ongoing diplomatic discussions on
the cessation of hostilities,” Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook
explained in a statement. “Regarding safety, department officials
conveyed that Russia’s continued strikes at At Tanf, even after U.S.
attempts to inform Russian forces through proper channels of on-going
coalition air support to the counter-ISIL forces, created safety
concerns for U.S. and coalition forces,” Cook continued. “Department
officials requested Russian responses to address those concerns.”
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor
Konashenkov confirmed, via the country’s state-owned media, that the
teleconference took place—but he did not specify the results of the
“extraordinary” meeting.
Russian warplanes had previously
shadowed planes belonging to the U.S.-led coalition over Syria, but the
coalition always described the Russians’ behavior as “professional.” By
contrast, in April Russian Su-24 bombers repeatedly buzzed the U.S. Navy
warship USS Donald Cook while the vessel sailed in international waters
in the Black Sea. A Pentagon spokesman called the Russians’ actions in
that incident “provocative and unprofessional.”
The Kremlin should be keenly aware of
the potential for unwanted—and potentially destabilizing—bloodshed that
exists in the air over Syria. In November, a Russian Su-24 bomber flying
a mission over Syria strayed over the Syria-Turkey border into Turkey
(False- CP) and a Turkish F-16 fighter promptly shot it down.
The two Russian crew members ejected.
One flier died when Syrian rebels on the ground opened fire on his
parachute. Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces launched a complex rescue
mission that ultimately retrieved the surviving pilot. One Russian
marine died and a helicopter was destroyed during that operation. The
fallout from the November incident continues, with Russia and Turkey
exchanging threats—and Moscow imposing economic sanctions on Ankarra
including limits on some food imports to Russia from Turkey.
It’s not clear how close the U.S.
fighters came to attacking and potentially shooting down the Su-34s over
At Tanf. Central Command declined to say what the rules of engagement
are for American pilots flying over Syria. “ROE are actually specifics
that we don’t get into,” Central Command said in a statement. The last
time a U.S. military warplane shot down a Russian—actually, Soviet—plane
was in 1953, over Korea or China, depending on which historians you
believe. The last time a Russian or Soviet warplane shot down an
American aircraft was in 1970, when a U.S. Army plane strayed over
Armenia.
Resuming Updates:
At 4:32 AM EDT A huge explosion has
struck an ammunition depot at a military firing range in southern
Russia. The Defense Ministry said around 600 people have been evacuated.
The incident took place at Ashuluk testing range near the city of
Astrakhan in southern Russia.
As of 6:23 EDT this morning Currently NATO has an abnormal amount of fighters and C-130s up over Europe.
x10 F-16
x2 F-15
x2 A342
x1 c135
x1 p3
x1 A310
x1 EC35
x2 C17
x12 c-130
x1 K35R
x2 Eurofighter Typhoon
x1 M28B
x1 UH1
6:28 AM EDT Confirm that there are heavy
troops and equipment movements in Europe and in Russia. It seems to be a
show of force. The military are not saying anything, but the rumor mill
believes that there has been a strike by Russia on American-backed
rebels in Syria overnight, which has led to a war of words.
7:17 AM EDT Now eerily quiet. This is a developing story. Please check back…”
