Operation Gotham Shield

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Operation Gotham Shield
Part of the National Exercise Program
TypeExercise
DateApril 23, 2017 (2017-04-23)
Executed byFederal Emergency Management Agency

Operation Gotham Shield was a 2017 exercise conducted by the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which tested civil defense response capabilities to a nuclear weapons attack against the New York City metropolitan area.

Background[edit]

Operation Gotham Shield imagined a nuclear detonation at the New Jersey-side entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel (pictured).

Operation Gotham Shield occurred over the course of four days, from April 23 to 27, 2017, and was part of FEMA's National Exercise Program.[1]

The operation involved the hypothetical ground burst of a nuclear device at the New Jersey-side entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, resulting in "hundreds of thousands" of killed and injured persons and 4.5 million refugees from the initial blast and subsequent fallout.[2][3][4]

Due to the location of the simulated attack, the operation scenario assumed the disablement or destruction of FEMA's Region II Regional Response Coordination Center[a] which required transfer of command functions to the Region V Regional Response Coordination Center.[b][1] In the final phases of the exercise, a hypothetical "massive influx" of refugees from the attack "overwhelmed" the resources of neighboring states.[1]

Participating agencies[edit]

In addition to FEMA, other agencies and organizations which participated in the exercise included the Morris County Office of Emergency Management, the New Jersey National Guard, the Military Auxiliary Radio System, the Metro Urban Search and Rescue Strike Team, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the FBI, the New Jersey State Police, various municipal departments of the City of New York, and others.[1][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Other activities[edit]

Gotham Shield occurred simultaneous with several partnered exercises testing the responsiveness of different agencies of the United States in the fulfillment of their own organizational priorities as they would apply to the core attack scenario, including Vibrant Response (led by United States Army North), Prominent Hunt 17-1 (led by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office), and Fuerzas Amigas (a joint planning event of the Mexican Armed Forces and United States Armed Forces).[11]

Ardent Sentry 17 (led by the Northern Command), was another simultaneous operation which focused on military aid to the civil power, specifically "marshalling simulated forces".[13] It was a command post exercise with staff operating from a primary command post at the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters in Troy, and a redundancy command post at the New York National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Latham.[13] It was overseen by General Timothy LaBarge of the New York National Guard who was given "dual status command", or authority to command both State of New York and United States military forces.[13]

Meanwhile, Canada conducted an overlapping exercise, Staunch Maple 17, whose scenario involved simultaneous "nuclear threats" in Ottawa and Halifax. It also involved the friendly intervention of U.S. military forces into eastern Canada.[14][15][16] Unlike Gotham Shield, Canada's Department of National Defence did not publicly describe the scenario around which Staunch Maple 17 was based, but media outlets would later cite sources who confirmed it involved a "nuclear event" and was a test of scaled contingency plans the country had involving "a wide range of scenarios involving attacks on Canada, including a missile attack."[14][16]

Conspiracy theories[edit]

Operation Gotham Shield was billed as a "false flag" by some conspiracy theorists, who predicted it was designed to cover up a planned, actual nuclear weapons attack against the New York metropolitan area, or as distraction from a planned U.S. nuclear weapons attack against North Korea.[17][18] The British tabloid Daily Express, meanwhile, propagated a different take on the conspiracy theory which hypothesized that "a major incident will happen to US President Donald Trump on Wednesday" (the date of the first day of Gotham Shield).[19]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ FEMA's Region II is responsible for New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and eight tribal nations.[5]
  2. ^ FEMA's Region V is normally responsible for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "GOTHAM SHIELD LEVEL 1 EXERCISE" (PDF). usda.gov. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  2. ^ "Feds prep for nuclear attack in NJ". WNYW-TV. April 26, 2017. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  3. ^ "Public Health Actions to Prepare for an Effective Radiological/Nuclear Response" (PDF). cdc.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  4. ^ "FEMA National Advisory Council May 2017 Meeting Minutes NAC" (PDF). fema.gov. FEMA. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  5. ^ "Region II". fema.gov. FEMA. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  6. ^ "Region V". fema.gov. FEMA. Archived from the original on November 19, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  7. ^ "New Jersey agencies participate in FEMA's 'Gotham Shield' nuclear attack drill". news12.com. News 12 New Jersey. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  8. ^ "NJ Army National Guard Supports Gotham Shield Aerial Survey Of NYC". fema.gov. FEMA. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  9. ^ "Upcoming Army MARS Communication Exercises Highlighted at Regional Conference". arrl.org. American Radio Relay League. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  10. ^ Hochran, Adam (April 24, 2017). "An explosion at the NYC tunnels?". WKXW-FM. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Understanding the Office of Intelligence, Security, and Emergency Response (S-60)". transportation.gov. U.S. Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  12. ^ Kanzler, Kaitlyn (April 24, 2017). "Federal, state agencies testing readiness for nuclear attack". northjersey.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  13. ^ a b c "Emergency-Response Training in Ardent Sentry 17" (PDF). Guard Times Magazine. Spring 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  14. ^ a b "N.S. hosts nuclear emergency exercise". Chronicle Herald. April 24, 2017. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  15. ^ "Military helicopters to fly low across Nova Scotia this week, including American Black Hawk". Metro. April 24, 2017. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  16. ^ a b Brewster, Murray (November 30, 2017). "Canada, U.S. held joint exercises simulating nuclear attack on both sides of border". MSN. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  17. ^ LaCapria, Kim (April 20, 2017). "What is Operation Gotham Shield?". snopes.com. Snopes. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  18. ^ Faife, Corin (April 25, 2017). "Reddit's Conspiracy Theorists Think World War III Will Begin Today". Vice. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  19. ^ "Shock radio broadcast sparks fears Donald Trump will be attacked on Wednesday". Daily Express. April 24, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
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