U.S. Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

U.S. Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska Marcus Weisgerber / Defense One

‘Is There Something Going On?’: On Scene at STRATCOM As North Korea Launches Missile

The head of U.S. Strategic Command is whisked to his operations center as a missile flies over Japan.

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. — Late on Thursday afternoon, Gen. John Hyten was sitting at the head of a conference table talking to reporters who had accompanied Defense Secretary James Mattis to the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command.

Eight minutes into the discussion, an aide interrupted the STRATCOM commander. “Is there something going on?” Hyten asked.

“Yeah,” another aide replied.

Hyten politely clarified his answer to a previous question, shook a few hands, and left the room. Less than an hour later, reports emerged North Korea had fired another missile, its 11th since May and the first since being slapped with U.N. sanctions earlier this week.

At STRATCOM, North Korea’s missile launches have become a common occurrence, military officials here said. About an hour before Hyten was whisked from the room, a military official recalled that a launch in August had caused another group of visitors to be quickly removed from the command’s Global Operations Center, more than 60 feet underground.

It just so happened that Thursday’s launch happened as Mattis was visiting STRATCOM, the command here that oversees America’s nuclear weapons arsenal — and tracks every North Korean missile launch.

About an hour after the launch, Mattis, and the small group of reporters traveling with him, were back at his hotel in the Omaha suburbs.

"We're very practiced on this,” the secretary said. “It was nothing novel to our ability to observe and orient ourselves.” But the launch "sent millions of Japanese into duck-and-cover" as it passed over the country before landing in the Pacific Ocean, Mattis said.

Earlier on Thursday, Army Col. Ray Hernandez, the battle watch commander in the Global Operations Center, stood in the middle of a room full of computers, massive projection screens on the wall and boxy telephones — some with more than 100 buttons — explaining how the facility would respond to a North Korean missile launch, or a nuclear war. There are still relics here of the Cold War, like digital clocks on the wall that would count down the time remaining before an enemy nuclear weapon detonated in the U.S., or a U.S. weapon struck an enemy. Under that, there’s another clock that displays the time the STRATCOM commander has to safely escape the ops center if a nuclear missile was inbound. The commander would run up a stairway into a waiting vehicle that would rush to a nearby E-6B aircraft equipped with an airborne version of the underground command center.

The E-6B aircrew can talk to, and launch, ICBMs in silos across the northern U.S. and from submarines. Just down the road from the STRATCOM headquarters, one of these planes sat on alert Thursday, ready to leave at a moment’s notice. The crew — a mix of Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps officers — regularly practices for they call “the worst day in American history.”

“When you’re all drinking a beer on Saturday, I’ll be on this plane practicing for nuclear war,” said Army Brig. Gen. Greg Bowen, the command’s deputy director of global operations.

Launches like Thursday’s are quickly detected by satellites, and the news relayed to the command center. But since North Korea is experimenting with different kinds of missiles in various types of configurations, it usually takes time to figure out the specific type that was launched, Hernandez said.

“That’s a very hard thing to do, especially with North Korea,” he said.

The battle center here coordinates with U.S. Northern Command — which would attempt to shoot down a missile heading toward the the United States — and other military commands around the world.

“The collaboration across all of our commands from Korea and Hawaii to Washington went smoothly,” Mattis said of Thursday’s launch. “It's just a reminder that we can do this from any location, wherever I'm at be it an airplane, STRATCOM, in Washington, D.C., literally in a hotel room we have the connections and the displays of data that allow us to do this. It was just a confirmation that we're in a good stance to never be caught by surprise.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.