DEFCON One
While it was 0730 in North Korea, it was roughly 1530 hours the day before at NORAD. The operators of this Cold War era command center were watching nervously as the opening hours of the war in North Korea held a lot of uncertainty. It was unknown if the Koreans would try to launch their ballistic missiles in response to the US and ROK’s pre-emptive attack.
In addition to the ballistic missile threat, many of the planners at NORAD feared a possible cyber-attack by the North Koreans. It was still early in the morning, so it was hard to fully know if such an attack was still in the works or if the CIA, NSA, and military had been successful in neutralizing that possible threat. The war with Russia had seen an unprecedented level of cyber-attacks across nearly every aspect of the NATO nations. As a result, the U.S. was rapidly identifying and then fixing the vulnerabilities as they were being exploited. The North Koreans might have been disappointed to find that America was much more capable of dealing with a cyber-threat than they would have been three or four months earlier.
Master Sergeant Lisa Collins was monitoring her computer screen, which presently was showing very detailed, real-time satellite images of North Korea, when she spotted a series of small flashes indicating missile launches. In a fraction of a second, the complex computer software that was monitoring the images being fed to it by the satellites alerted her and the rest of the operation center that multiple missile launches had been detected.
Once the klaxon alarms and red flashing light began to sound, everyone in the room knew about the launches in the DPRK. Not everyone had been monitoring the Korean Peninsula, many others were monitoring the thousands of satellites in orbit and other potential hotspots like China and Russia, but at that point they all looked at the new missile threats.
The primary monitor on the big wall immediately showed the Korean Peninsula and confirmed that 23 ballistic missiles had just been launched. Seven of the missiles were starting to track towards the American carrier battlegroup, three were headed towards Seoul, and the other thirteen were heading towards major US and South Korean military bases throughout the peninsula. What no one knew was whether these missiles were carrying nuclear warheads or were simply conventional high-explosive missiles.
Admiral Bill Robinson had taken over command of NORAD roughly seven months ago, shortly after the new President was sworn in. He was ecstatic about getting this command, which was going to be his final command before he retired from the military after 34 years of service. He had risen through the ranks of the Navy largely by pioneering the advancements in ballistic missile defense systems. Once he realized the value of a defense system that could be repositioned anywhere in the world, he had gone to bat, vigorously advocating for the Navy to get these resources to the point that he drowned out the other branches. It was only because of him that they had the Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers and the Ticonderoga guided-missile cruisers as the lead defensive platforms.
When the time came for a new commander to take over NORAD, he had worked every favor and pulled every string he had to try and get this final posting-the last hurrah of his career. He wanted to make one final mark and ensure the country had a well-established, multi-tiered missile defense system fully-operational by the time he retired.
Despite obtaining this critical post, he knew he was also in the twilight years of his career. Privately, he would admit he was looking forward to the retired life and fly fishing. He and his wife had bought a couple of acres near the Perry Park area, north of Colorado Springs, and planned on starting construction of their dream home this coming spring.
Since the start of the war with Russia, he had been baffled by trying to figure out how the situation had escalated into a full-scale war. His mission at NORAD suddenly became a lot more serious. Not since the days of the Cold War had the US seriously faced a nuclear threat, but now the US was at war with a nuclear power that was capable of pulverizing the US if it chose to use those weapons, and it had just gone to war with a second country that had spent the better part of a decade saying it would obliterate the US with nuclear fire. He suddenly found himself wishing his organization had a lot more fighter aircraft and a much more robust missile defense system.
The opening salvo of the war with Russia had not only caught NORAD and the US by surprise, it had temporarily disabled most of the US’s surveillance and communication satellites, along with the majority of the world’s GPS satellites. Between the DDoS attacks on the satellite links and the malware attack against the internal Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the creativeness of the cyber-attacks had caught them off guard. It had taken nearly two weeks to regain control of the satellites and get new ones launched to replace the ones destroyed by the IoT attack.
As the war with Russia continued, it looked more likely that at least that particular conflict would stay conventional, which was good for all involved. As the war with Russia progressed, and China annexed much of Southeast Asia, military activity began to pick up heavily inside North Korea. Admiral Robinson watched in horror as the unavoidable conflict with North Korea unfolded. He began to lose sleep at night trying to prepare for a war that would almost certainly turn nuclear.
It was mid-afternoon, and Admiral Robinson was on a secured video teleconference call with the Pentagon operations center, getting an update on the progress of the war in Korea. Then, just as they were going over the progress of the strategic airstrikes, the klaxons began to blare, alerting them to a potential ballistic missile launch.
Between the blaring and obnoxious noises, the admiral managed to say, “I need to see what’s going on… I’ll get back to you shortly.”
While one of his staff officers was disconnecting the call, an officer from the ops center burst into the room. “Admiral! We have confirmation of ballistic missile launches from North Korea!” he shouted, to the shock and horror of those in the room. The Admiral quickly got up and began to race back to the ops center.
He rushed down the hall with several of the other officers and senior NCOs hot on his heels. “Make a hole!” he yelled as he nearly ran several people over trying to get to the command center.
As soon as he walked into the room, he could immediately see the tracks of 23 ballistic missiles as they began to head towards their intended targets.
“Move us from DEFCON 3 to DEFCON 2 immediately,” Robinson said to the nearest officer. “Alert our missile interceptor bases that we have confirmation of ballistic missile launches.”
Turning to another officer, he ordered, “Send a FLASH message to all US and allied forces in Asia, and let them know about the ballistic missile launches.”
While the messages were being sent, the THAAD missile defense system near Seoul began to engage the enemy missiles. The four Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers and the guided missile destroyers also joined the fray as they began to engage the incoming missiles as well. So far, everyone was acting according to the well-choregraphed defensive plan that they had rehearsed so many times in training.