US Strategic Command readies for Exercise Global Lightning 42804161

Defence & Security News - USA
 
US Strategic Command readies for Exercise Global Lightning
The US Strategic Command is preparing for the annual Global Lightning exercise, which will involve forces from all of the nine Commands. The exercise starting on Saturday will test and project Pentagon’s deterrent capability against a series of global threats.
     
US Strategic Command readies for Exercise Global Lightning
USSTRATCOM's commander Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney outlines the Command's mission areas and priorities during a speech at Malmstrom AFB (Photo: USAF)
     

Global Lightning exercises serve as the test ground for the command and control system of the US Strategic Command against simulated threats. STRATCOM’s role is to deter, detect and retaliate in case of an attack against the enemy forces.

The means available to the Command including a wide range of capabilities such as strategic deterrence; space operations; joint electronic warfare; cyberspace operations; missile defence; combatting weapons of mass destruction and intelligence.

The Command’s statement on the occasion of the exercise mentioned: “Global Lightning 2016 will integrate nearly every conceivable strategic threat to our nation to ensure the resilience, redundancy and survivability of our strategic deterrent forces, while stressing the STRATCOM capabilities provided to geographic combatant commanders in a crisis or contingency.”

USSTRATCOM is one of the nine Unified Combatant Commands of the Pentagon organized on a functional basis. As the successor of the US Strategic Air Command it was officially established in 1992 under George Bush’s presidency and merged with US Space Command in 2002. Its headquarters are at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

The rest of the functional Commands are the Special Operations Command and the Transportation Command. The other six commands have a geographical orientation.