1 US carrier and 18 US combatants sunk in 10 minutes

[Skybird]

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/3...r-game-minutes

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...-money-report/

Oooops.

[Die Welt] The "Millennium Challenge" exercise in 2002 took a worrying turn for the US armed forces. This is evident from documents that were kept secret for two decades and have now been released. The National Security Archive, an institution of George Washington University, has now put this information on its website; the Washington Post previously reported on it.

"Millennium Challenge 2002" was very complex, with over 13,500 participants in 17 locations, was prepared for two years and cost 250 million dollars. The exercise took place over a period of three weeks in July and August 2002, and consisted of computer simulations and practical maneuvers in real locations.

The virtual part included a group of US warships, including an aircraft carrier, in the Persian Gulf. The squadron came under fire in a surprise attack by the enemy. The missiles, which were fired from smaller merchant ships and aircraft under radio silence, penetrated the US ships' defense systems. Within ten minutes, 19 ships, including the aircraft carrier, were destroyed and sank.

The leaders of the exercise at the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, were perplexed and were forced to stop the exercise and restart it with changed rules. The course of the simulation was classified as not realistic. The subsequent practical parts of the maneuver, including shooting exercises at US military bases, would otherwise not have been able to take place.

Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper, who commanded the enemy forces in the simulation at the time and is now retired, has now criticized this decision in an interview with the Washington Post. For him, the maneuver was "manipulated" and its significance was thus distorted, a US victory was predetermined and the critical weaknesses of the armed forces that had been revealed were played down.

He also explained this in a 20-page report to his superiors at the time. In the official 752-page final report of the maneuver, it was nevertheless presented as a "major milestone" and the initial loss of the squadron was dismissed as only a "moderate" setback. According to Van Riper, the head of the maneuver found that the successful computer-simulated attack on the US ships "would not have happened like that" in reality and therefore resurrected the unit.

The ex-Marine Van Riper described his tactics at the time as a combination of ambiguity and asymmetry. He deliberately designed his leadership strategy in such a way that it could undermine the technological superiority of the US armed forces, including the ability to intercept enemy communications. Therefore, in the simulation, he used couriers to deliver important messages and he relied on light signals instead of radio.

After the virtual sinking of the US ships, the team at the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk was "shocked," says Van Riper. "There was just silence. Something like that had never happened in an exercise before. I don't think they knew what to do." After the simulation was restarted, the rules were changed. Tactics that were now considered unrealistic were no longer permitted: for example, Van Riper was no longer allowed to start the battle or use chemical weapons. He then resigned from his role as commander of the enemy units in the maneuver.

Half a year after "Millennium Challenge 2002," the Second Iraq War began on March 20, 2003. The USA and a "coalition of the willing" quickly took over the capital Baghdad. But US President George W. Bush's victory speech on an aircraft carrier under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003 proved to be premature. During the occupation that followed, it was not possible to bring peace to the country for years. In various uprisings and skirmishes, US troops repeatedly fell behind - against technologically inferior opponents who resorted to simple and highly dangerous means in their guerrilla tactics.

In Daniel Suzarez' thriller "Kill Decision" from 2012 he describes autonomous drones that are self-organising their swarm attacks via swarm AI and that get launched from containers aboard containerships. Food for thought. Swarms of outononmous drones are being tested by militaries around the world.

With the wide availability of high tech gadgets on the global market, suich thigns will increasingly become available for non-state-actors as well: assassins. Criminal syndicates. Building somehtign with module comopnents form various producers also helps to mask the ID of an attacker. A government can strike - and not being held accountable for the attack.