For nearly two years, Bruce Blair worked on a Congressional study which became known as the “Nuclear Decapitation Study.” Today, Blair is not on a short list of people who can see the study. The study has been classified “SIOP-BSI” — “Single Integrated Operational Plan–Extremely Sensitive Information.” Apparently the only people who can see the plan now are the president, the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the deputy secretary of defense. Members of Congress who commissioned the study can’t see it.
The study apparently warns that the U.S. strategic command and control system could easily be knocked out quickly in nuclear war.
No doubt this explains the rapid and unheralded development of GWEN — Ground Wave Emergency Network — a communications system designed to function after a nuclear war begins which will enable leaders to establish and maintain communications during an extended nuclear war.
Studies have shown that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), resulting from a nuclear explosion, will cripple entire continental power and communication lines, as well as radio stations, command posts, radar systems and aircraft and missile electronics.
Since 1982, military leaders have stressed the need for “nuclear communications” that will survive and endure through a protracted period of nuclear conflict.
Clearly, GWEN is the scientific response to “nuclear decapitation.” GWEN, which will operate after nuclear war begins, is expected to cost one billion dollars. Utilizing low frequency radio waves, GWEN will link “sensor sites, command posts, and land-based nuclear forces.” Under a contract with the RCA Corporation, the Air Force proposes to construct hundreds of relay nodes in communities across the nation Each GWEN node will consist of a tower 300 feet high, an underground copper screen 600 feet in diameter, and buildings to house transmitting and power generating equipment. The installations are designed to withstand EMP.
The first phase of GWEN, with nine relay nodes, was built in the Midwest during 1984 without much public knowledge or outcry. Called “The Thin Line” by the Air Force, Phase 2 includes a network of 57 30-story towers encircling the U.S., scheduled for completion this year. As the construction of Phase 2 brings the arms race into their backyards, citizens at proposed GWEN sites are starting to question the communication system and the policies that it represents.
The media have yet to inform the American people of the existence of GWEN and its full implications — the acceptance of protracted nuclear war.
SOURCES:
RECON, Winter 1986, “National No-GWEN Alliance,” by Lois Barber; PHYSICS AND SOCIETY, July 1985, “Estimating Vulnerability to Electromagnetic Pulse Effects,” by John M. Richardson, pp 5-7; WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/18/86, “The Ultimate Secret: A Pentagon Report Its Author Can’t See,” by Tim Carrington.