A $250 Million War Game and Its Shocking Outcome

Guest Post by Nick Giambruno

At a cost of $250 million, Millennium Challenge 2002 was the largest and most expensive war game in Pentagon history.

With over 13,500 participants, the US government took over two years to design it.

The exercise pitted Iran against the US military. Washington intended to show how the US military could defeat Iran with ease.

Paul Van Riper, a three-star general and 41-year veteran of the Marine Corps, led Iranian forces in the war game. His mission was to take on the full force of the US military, led by an aircraft carrier battle group and a large amphibious landing force in the Persian Gulf.

The results shocked everyone…

Van Riper waited for the US Navy to pass through the shallow and narrow Strait of Hormuz, which made them sitting ducks for Iran’s unconventional and asymmetric warfare techniques.

The idea is to level the playing field against a superior enemy with swarms of explosive-laden suicide speedboats, low-flying planes carrying anti-ship missiles, naval mines, and land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, among other low-cost but highly effective measures.

In minutes, Van Riper emerged victorious over his superior opponent and sank all 19 ships. Had it been real life, 20,000 US sailors and marines would have died.

Millennium Challenge 2002 was a complete disaster for the Pentagon, which had spent a quarter of a billion dollars to set up the extensive war game. It produced the exact opposite outcome they wanted.

So what did the Pentagon do with these humbling results?

Like a child playing a video game, they hit the reset button. They then rigged and scripted the game so that the US was guaranteed to win.

After realizing the integrity of the war game had been compromised, a disgusted Van Riper walked out mid-game. He then said:

“Nothing was learned from this. And a culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future.”

The main lesson of Millennium Challenge 2002 is that aircraft carriers—the biggest and most expensive ships ever built—wouldn’t last a single day in combat against even a regional power like Iran. Russia and China would have an even easier time dispatching them. They are overpriced toys.

That means the US has wasted untold trillions on military hardware that could prove to be worthless in a serious conflict.

Nonetheless, the US government still parades aircraft carriers around the world from time to time to try to intimidate its enemies.

However, it’s a flawed strategy prone to catastrophic results if someone calls their bluff.

While Millennium Challenge 2002 occurred more than 20 years ago, it is of paramount importance today.

Iran has substantially improved its asymmetric and unconventional warfare capabilities. It’s doubtful the US military would fare much better today than 20 years ago.

In short, war with Iran today could be even more disastrous than the Millennium Challenge 2002 simulation.

Unfortunately, war with Iran is an increasingly probable outcome as tensions in the Middle East are at their highest point in generations and are trending higher.

Previously, I lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for several years while working for an investment bank. The experience was effectively an advanced training course in Middle East geopolitics. Today, it helps me see the big picture in the region… and unfortunately, it isn’t pretty.

I think the next big war in the Middle East is coming soon and could be the biggest one ever. It will focus on Iran.

The market doesn’t appreciate how close we are to a big war and the implications of it.

But this distortion in the market is a blessing. It’s handing us a golden opportunity.

First and foremost, I think there’s a huge opportunity to profit in the oil market right now.

I’m certainly not cheering for war. I despise war, which is the health of the State.

Regardless, a big war is highly likely, with significant investment implications that would be foolish to ignore.

In short, we are only one escalation away from potentially the biggest oil shock in history as the Middle East is on the verge of the largest regional war in generations.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to blindside you, your family, or your portfolio.

Quite the contrary.

That’s precisely why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare.

It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now.

Click here to download the PDF now.

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17 Comments
10ffgrid
10ffgrid
April 23, 2024 5:15 pm

Scary stuff.

zappalives
zappalives
April 23, 2024 5:27 pm

That was then and this is now.
Our brilliant leader………..Admiral Levine has revamped merca’s armed forces with deadly results.
Puny Iranians will quail against our “Faggot force factor” !
Our “Combat cunt combinations” and most deadly of all……………our “twerking nigger laser” systems.
Fear not merca………..democrat party will cloak you in the security of sex organ juices !

YourAverageJoe
YourAverageJoe
  zappalives
April 23, 2024 8:26 pm

It’s a Public Health admiral, not a naval one.
Thankfully

Twat Waffle
Twat Waffle
April 23, 2024 5:32 pm

Same results and tantrum with Millennium 2002 as Operation Force in 1993, starring Col. Douglas MacGreggor. Not to mention Cuntry 404’s 8 years of NATO training.

B_MC
B_MC
April 23, 2024 5:37 pm

The Boxer is 2024 Navy’s Canary

we have another datapoint that our repair and maintenance isn’t just almost criminally insufficient for peace – it is on its face laughably short of any requirement to keep the US Navy in the fight for a Pacific War that goes past D+90.



Slightly larger than a WWII Essex Class CV, she’s one of eight Wasp Class LHD of which we only have seven left after the burning of USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6). With the 2+3 America Class LHA, they are an invaluable high-demand/low-density asset demonstrating global national resolve afloat.

What has the 29-year old BOXER been up to? Well, earlier this month;

   The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer is underway for a long-delayed deployment after a maintenance and overhaul period of almost four years.

   The ship has been conducting work-ups for the last several months with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Boxer last deployed in 2019.

   The Navy struggled to get the ship back to sea after a $200 million planned overhaul and maintenance availability in 2020.

Wait … less than a couple of weeks later – what do we see?

   The trouble-plagued USS Boxer has returned to San Diego after experiencing a new equipment problem during its first deployment in five years,

Well … guess what?

   15th MEU Delayed Further by Lack of Dry Docks To Repair USS Boxer

At a time when we don’t have enough amphibious ships – of all types but especially the large-decks – we have another datapoint that our repair and maintenance isn’t just almost criminally insufficient for peace – it is on its face laughably short of any requirement to keep the US Navy in the fight for a Pacific War that goes past D+90.

https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/the-boxer-is-2024-navys-canary

Two if by sea.
Two if by sea.
April 23, 2024 5:45 pm

The two fellows that showed Imperial Japan how an enemy would frog jump islands on the way to the Japanese mainland prior to Pearl Harbor sprung immediately to mind. Author Morrison intimates the two “gamers” weren’t heard from again.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Two if by sea.
April 24, 2024 7:39 am

You missed it by “that” much.

Anonymous
Anonymous
April 23, 2024 6:20 pm

Lol the DEI military with sodomites and trannies in charge. Solution? More diversity causing losing is racist.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
  Anonymous
April 23, 2024 6:54 pm

You forgot the girls…,They’re not only useless, they endanger the other soldiers and sailers….,

B_MC
B_MC
April 23, 2024 6:48 pm

comment image

Military Could Hit Troops With Courts-Martial For Refusing To Use Preferred Pronouns

The military could seek to formally punish service members for refusing to use another service member’s preferred pronouns under existing policy, according to military experts.

A 2020 Equal Opportunity law opened the door for commanders to subject someone who refuses to affirm a transgender servicemember’s so-called gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment, Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Such a move would likely infringe on a servicemember’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience, but it might not prevent leaders from employing more subtle ways of disciplining service members.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/04/21/military-could-hit-troops-with-court-martials-for-refusing-to-use-preferred-pronouns-experts-say/

TN Patriot
TN Patriot
  B_MC
April 23, 2024 7:23 pm

There appears to be a reason Southern boys are not enlisting.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
April 23, 2024 6:51 pm

It’s much worse now, hypersonic missiles would sink everything in sight, and the Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz would make it virtually impossible to land an invasion force…Nor would neighboring countries allow the US to station air force on their soil….Fortunately, the US military knows all that…..

Rifles are the Cure
Rifles are the Cure
April 23, 2024 7:20 pm

Paul Can Riper schooled those West Point fags

lamont cranston
lamont cranston
April 23, 2024 9:59 pm

Haven’t read much farther, but here’s recommended reading if not posted:

“Twilight’s Last Gleaming” by John Michael Greer.

It posits the same results but worse. Total collapse of the US economy. Real Civil War, not the War of Northern Aggression.

BTW, do you Yankees know that a minimum 30-35% of the South’s black population died from starvation post-April 1865?

m
m
  lamont cranston
April 24, 2024 7:40 am

Did you read it to the very end?

Anonymouse
Anonymouse
April 23, 2024 11:22 pm

The Pentagram…a bunch of self important privilege armchair gamers paid millions by their puppet masters in the MIC to lose wars over a long and profitable time frame. The DEI General Staff are arrogant fuktards, too stupid to see the obvious. When the CW kicks off against the American people these will be the ones doing the planning…lol. Anyone who lets their kid enlist probably made them get the vax too.

Tlate
Tlate
April 24, 2024 8:43 am

To state the military learned nothing from this exercise is absurd. You always have lessons learned that get applied to various areas to improve warfighting capability. The results are really not that important in this type of exercise. The exercise can be rigged to produce any outcome you want as this article points out. The main purpose is to review command and control and how you adapt to unforeseen problems. Also, the US military has known for some time that carriers are highly vulnerable in an actual conflict. Matters not because contractors make a lot of money from US carriers. So, no surprise they keep getting built. Congress complains about the high cost of carriers but they keep approving the funding, go figure.