Posted on 12/14/2020 9:30:37 AM PST by ransomnote
In a seemingly odd sequence of events today, The War Zone was made aware that Ramstein Air Base in Germany, America's massive central European military hub, alerted its personnel of a potential incoming missile strike. After the strike never materialized, the sprawling installation's command post put out a notice stating that "the missile launch was then assessed to be part of a training exercise" and wasn't deemed a threat to the base.
You can read the entire message below:
"Attention Team Ramstein, Today, the Ramstein Air Base Command Post was notified via an alert notification system of a real-world missile launch in the European theater. The Command Post followed proper procedure and provided timely and accurate notifications to personnel in the Kaiserslautern Military Community. The missile launch was then assessed to be part of a training exercise and not a threat to the KMC area. The situation is all clear. We’d like to thank our Command Post members for their quick response to ensure our people stay informed so they can take the proper safety precautions."
SNIP
Still, we have no idea what early warning system triggered the alert. America's infrared early warning space-based sensing layer stares at the earth from many vantage points in orbit day and night. Historically, it provides the initial warning of a ballistic missile launch via detection of the missile's hot boost-phase plume. These satellites, especially the newer ones, can also detect a greater variety of infrared events, as well, including artillery fire, aircraft crashes, smaller missile shots, and even the launches of cruise missiles.
There are also many radars scattered throughout the entire region that support the missile defense ecosystem as part of NATO's larger integrated air defense network. Furthermore, Ramstein is home to the Alliance's Headquarters Allied Air Command (HQ AC), which incorporates air and missile defense, and the space-based and radar early-warning information that the air defense network relies upon, into a major command and control nerve center.
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Either somebody with the exercise effed up (entirely possible) or they’re not being completely truthful. Also entirely possible...
Colonel, USAF (ret)
I mis-read that last word and had some concerns about the missile. Guess it's OK now.
or... Tyler didn’t get the memo there was going to be an exercise and flipped out when the alarms sounded. Now attempting to cover for himself...
I’ll bet the pucker factor was off-scale high at AFTAC.
James Bond at the Circus?
Can’t it be both?
I s’pose, but a bit of a coinky-dink...
fubar!
“Either somebody with the exercise effed up (entirely possible) or they’re not being completely truthful. Also entirely possible...”
Agree however Ramstein has not had exercises like that since the Cold war.
South Korea still have exercises like that and you hear the message start out as Exercise Exercise then the message over Giant Voice then the sirens.
I will vote they are not being truthful, normally you would be in exercise mode already.
Scud?
Are they using the new Dominion Early Warning System? Out of 5 air defence radars, 23 of them reported a missile launch.
Years ago (late 90s), there was a system which would be used for events like this and nobody really understood the dataflow (probably half a dozen people max). There was normally 100-percent real-world events. Occasionally for an exercise somewhere in the theater, there would be this filter set up with a code that would read ‘EXERCISE’ and some fake missile launch. The code would normally be enough to know right off the bat that this was exercise.
You could go to the system...change the location or the timing, set the broadcast time, and everyone knew that the event would occur during some exercise.
This looks to me like some idiot didn’t warn folks this would be part of the exercise, and they weren’t trained to look at the identifier ‘Exercise’ or the code on the screen.
Rearrange the letters in 'unclear', you get some interesting combinations:
'Nuclear'.
'Real Nu C?'
'unreal C?'
Mere coincidences? You be the judge...
FWIW, if a missile were launched from Iran (most likely source) or Russia (highly unlikely) into Ramstein, the first indication would be on SBIRS (Space-Based Infrared System), followed quickly by detection by BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) RAF Flyingsdale Moor. BMEWS Flyingsdale is an RAF show, but U.S. built and paid for. What the U.S. gets is real time data courtesy the RAF (who are very good at what they do.) I don’t think there is any local radar that would see a thing, and I doubt there are any inceptors that could do anything about it. We were going to place interceptors in Eastern Europe until Obama nixed it.
Bet is on not being truthful, ala Hawaii.
From my personal experience, the best indicators of incoming missiles are extremely loud explosions followed by a screaming siren.
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