Three US nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carriers representing nearly $30 billion of advanced military hardware put on show of force in the Western Pacific Ocean over the weekend, the first time three of the 100,000-ton behemoths have sailed together in a decade. Amidst heightened tensions with North Korea the USS Ronald Reagan, USS Nimitz, and the USS Theodore Roosevelt are currently engaged in a four day war games exercise which will link up with allies Japan and South Korea, who are also participating.
The last time three US aircraft carrier strike groups worked together in the Western Pacific was off the US island of Guam in 2007, according to a Navy statement.
The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Nimitz and their multi-ship strike groups are participating in the four days of exercises, which are expected to end Tuesday. A South Korean Defense Ministry official said the three US carriers held drills on either side of the waters separating the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Exercises closest to the Korean coast involved US and South Korean ships, while those closest to Japan involved US and Japanese ships, the official said.
Though the Navy says the drills are meant to showcase its “unique capability to operate multiple carrier strike groups as a coordinate strike force effort,” the three-carrier strike force is no doubt meant to send a signal of overwhelming military might to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un.
As we've observed many time before, the possibility of a war between the US and North Korea seems just one harshly worded tweet away, and the window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution, as well as for the US stopping Kim Jong-Un from obtaining a nuclear-armed ICBM closing fast, analysts have started to analyze President Trump’s military options, what a war between the US and North Korea would look like, and what the global economic consequences would be.
The rarity of seeing this many Nimitz-class supercarriers at once - especially at this moment of extreme tension - is perhaps a sign that we are inching toward such an unthinkable and unpredictable war. The drill constitutes the first time in a decade that a three-carrier strike force has been deployed to the region and various reports have acknowledged the build-up of this many carriers as "unusual".
Meanwhile, the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s official media outlet, issued a statement on November 11, accusing the United States of an unnecessary provocation which could trigger an arms race. “The U.S. efforts to expand its military influence in Asia-Pacific and the movement of big neighboring powers to contain it escalate the military tension and increase arms race in the region with each passing day,” it said.
KCNA also said that the presence of the three carriers was part of Washington's "sinister intention to maintain military hegemony in the region."
North Korean government officials told CNN's Will Ripley in Pyongyang last week that the US was increasingly taking action that could "ignite another Korean War."
"Nobody knows when and how the 'war maniac' Trump will ignite the 'wick of war,'" the officials said, referring to the presence of the carriers near the peninsula.
One hopes that the only time the world witnesses such a rare group deployment of three nuclear-powered US carrier is during drills, especially since the next sighting could mean the world has already plunged into war... even if it means providing the enemy with the most convenient target possible, one that would inflict more military damage on the US than any in history.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to simulate ‘biological attacks’ on critical infrastructure near the border between Kansas and Oklahoma. The first round of drills will occur on January through February of next year, along with the second round in the summer.
For some time, we have been documenting the increased drills, the United States Government is actively preparing for or underway in a field training exercise. More recently, the Department of Defense just conducted a drill simulating a total grid collapse across the United States. Days ago, Wisconsin released plans on an upcoming drill to stimulate a grid collapse for mid-November. We find it strange the United States Government is drilling for apocalyptic scenarios, but provides very limited details to the American populace. It’s not strange and we’ll tell you why, if the public ever found out about the true nature of these drills it would lead to chaos. So frankly, most Americans will be left out of the dark of what’s coming…
The first drill starts in January and continues into February of next year at two buildings within the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (Chilocco campus) in Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma. The location is about 6-miles south of Arkansas City, Kansas. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) plans to release low-levels of inert chemicals and biological stimulant materials simulating a biological attack on critical infrastructure. S&T is studying the penetration capabilities of a biological stimulant against resident buildings.
DHS’s strategical goal for the operation is to “detect and recover from biological attacks and inform and support biodefense planning, response, and restoration, particularly in consequence/risk assessment modeling of the indoor hazards posed by outdoor aerosols”.
Hiding on page 22/55 of the report, the building’s characteristics are said to resemble residential and apartment buildings within the United States. Here are additional characteristics of what DHS was looking for:
- minimal proximity to the public
- unoccupied from daily use
- have release positions in the predominant wind direction
- no obstructions within 20 meters of the building
- centrally located to campus to ensure plume dissipation below PEL prior to migration off campus
- maximize distance from nearby pond and any aquatic life
- the ability to environmentally sample the building over a course of hours to weeks, to months
- with limited human movement traffic at or around the structure.
Local Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas is not too fond of DHS’s drill and said last Thursday he is “monitoring the situation closely”.
“I have numerous questions regarding this proposed test,” Estes said. “While it’s important for our federal agencies to test their abilities in response to threats, we need to be 100 percent certain this test is safe for the residents of south-central Kansas.”
Bottomline: As millennials continue to urbanize America-moving out of their parents basements into multifamily complexes with the dreams of enjoying avocado and toast every morning for breakfast. There is a far deeper problem-jeopardizing the millennials’ city-life narrative and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing for it: ‘biological attacks’ on apartment buildings…
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