- SAN DIEGO (AP) - Preparations
are underway in Southern California and Nevada for the largest military
experiment in U.S. history.
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- The Millennium Challenge 2002, which begins next week,
was mandated by Congress to help U.S. forces prepare for future wars.
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- About 13,500 troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force and
Marines will use the latest in military hardware in a simulation of what
planners believe the battlefield could look like in five years.
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- Over three weeks, troops will play out a scenario that
echoes real-world events involving simulated weapons of mass destruction,
urban warfare, the United Nations and humanitarian relief.
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- The Joint Forces Command, operating in Suffolk, Va.,
is coordinating the experiments from July 24 through Aug. 15 off the coast
of San Diego and at bases in Southern California and Nevada. Top military
brass, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief
of Naval operations, will attend.
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- The experiments are the fruits of a drive to transform
the military from a heavy, mechanized force designed to fight the Soviet
Union into mobile, high-tech troops that can deliver swift hammer blows
to a different kind of enemy.
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- "In the Persian Gulf, it took us months and months
to stage forces and stockpile logistics," said Tony Billings, a spokesman
for Joint Forces Command. "New concepts are designed to cut down on
that preparation time dramatically and position U.S. forces so that they're
capable of rapidly and decisively striking at the enemy's center of gravity."
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- Just as remarkable is the fact that all four branches
of the military - often riven by intraservice rivalries - are working on
the same page.
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- "It's like you're playing baseball all these years
but the infield never worked with the outfield," said Dan Goure of
the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., who specializes in transformation
issues. "Now you've got them all in the field trying to go through
a couple of innings."
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- Two years of planning have gone into the experiment to
test how the U.S. military can respond to an international incident that
can rapidly spin out-of-control into all-out warfare.
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- "The question for us is how do we bring all our
resources to bear to prevent that from occurring," said Cmdr. Jack
Hanzlik, spokesman for the Navy's Third Fleet based in Coronado.
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- The hypothetical scenario begins with a military coup
in a country stricken by a massive earthquake. At the same time, a decision
by the World Court over disputed territory outrage the coup leaders and
prompts a military buildup and a shipping blockade. In response, the United
Nations votes to impose sanctions.
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- As part of the simulation, parts of which are classified,
the U.S. Marines and special forces will destroy a hypothetical weapons
of mass destruction site at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville.
That will be followed by a 96-hour urban combat exercise that shifts Marines
between all-out fighting and peacekeeping.
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- Off-the-shelf technologies will be tested including Dragon
Eye, a five-pound unmanned aerial vehicle that troops in the field can
use to scout terrain over surrounding hills. The Navy will test a high-speed
vessel capable of maximum speeds of 55 miles per hour.
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- On the Net:
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- http://www.jfcom.mil/about/experiments/mc02.htm
- http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/3622286p-4648190c.html
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