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Posted on: Monday, July 22, 2002

Joint forces war games focus on real-world scenarios

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — Preparations are under way in Southern California and Nevada for the largest military experiment in U.S. history.

Millennium Challenge 2002, which begins this week, was mandated by Congress to help U.S. forces improve their combat-readiness in new kinds of warfare.

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.

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.

The Joint Forces Command, operating in Suffolk, Va., is coordinating the experiments from Wednesday through Aug. 15 off San Diego and at bases in Southern California and Nevada. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be on hand. 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 capable of delivering swift hammer blows to a different kind of enemy.

"In the Persian Gulf, it took us months and months to stage forces and stockpile logistics," said Tony Billings, a spokesman for the 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."

Just as remarkable is how all four branches of the military are working on the same page.

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.

"The question for us: How do we bring all our resources to bear to prevent that from occurring?" said Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik, spokesman for the Navy's 3rd Fleet based in Coronado, Calif.

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 outrages the coup leaders and prompts a military buildup and a shipping blockade. In response, the United Nations votes to impose sanctions.

As part of the simulation, the U.S. Marines and special forces will destroy a hypothetical site harboring weapons of mass destruction, followed by a 96-hour urban combat exercise that shifts Marines between all-out fighting and peacekeeping.