Planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks # War Games Paralleled Attacks
When a private or commercial aircraft moves significantly off its flight plan, it is a US legal requirement that fighter planes be sent up to investigate. Between September 2000 and June 2001, the US military launched fighter aircraft — able to be airborne within eight minutes[26] — on 67 occasions in order to intercept suspicious flights.[27]
On September 11, the first hijacking was confirmed by
8:20 a.m.; the second, by
8:42 a.m.; and the third was known of by
8:50 a.m.. The first plane struck the World Trade Center at
8:46 a.m. followed by the second plane at
9:03 a.m.; yet not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from Andrews Air Force Base, located 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit the Pentagon at
9:37 a.m..
Vigilant Guardian was a nationwide, CINCNORAD-sponsored, CJCS/CDS-approved, system-wide Command Post Exercise (CPX) involving HQ NORAD, NORAD regions and sectors and their supporting units.[36] It was coordinated between multiple radar sites across the United States and Canada and one element involved a simulated attack coming from across the North Pole.[37] September 11th 2001 was day-two of the Vigilant Guardian exercise, and simulated an imaginary crisis occurring at North American Air defense outposts nationwide.
FAA and military officials reported trouble decerning the war game operations from the actual attacks. After being notified of the first hijacking, General Larry Arnold originally thought it was part of the exercise, [38] as did NEADS Commander Col. Robert K. Marr Jr. and his deputy Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins, who said "everybody" at NEADS first thought the attacks were part of Vigilant Guardian.[39] In addition to Global Guardian and Amalgam Warrior, Vigilant Guardian is also conducted in conjunction with Crown Vigilance -- an Air Combat Command/Langley Air Force Base exercise -- as well as a USCINCSPACE-sponsored exercise entitled Apollo Guardian. [40] The details of Vigilant Guardian remain classified and the 9/11 Commission's failure to thoroughly report on the exercise or even mention any of the other war games would suggest the same is true for all other training operations being conducted on that morning.
Also being conducted on 9/11 was operation Northern Vigilance, a war game that inserted false blips onto FAA and military radar screens and drew fighters away from the North East Air Defense Sector (NEADS) -- where all four hijackings had occurred.[46][47]
Such NORAD exercises practiced coordination between NORAD headquarters, its subordinate regions and sectors, and the National Command Authority,[48] which, i
n President Bush's absence, would've been Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.[49]
Prior to 9/11, NORAD had planned multiple war game scenarios involving hijacked planes being flown into American symbols, including the World Trade Center. One exercise planned in July of 2001 and ran sometime before or possibly even on 9/11, involved military aircraft mocking the behavior of hijacked airliners;[50] and coincidentally,
as the 9/11 attacks were taking place, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office were actually participating in an exercise that simulated a plane crashing into a building.[51] The 9/11 Commission neglected to investigate or report on this subject, therefore it is presently unknown what relation, if any, these exercises had to Global Guardian, Vigilant Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, or Northern Vigilance, or how any of the war games might have affected the military's response to the real attacks.
Moved to a more appropriate forum