Wargames in the News

[easye]

More China and Taiwan stuff.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE61S9BpDek

[easye]

This one tries to take into account Climate Change......

www.npr.org/2024/06/05/nx-s1-4904867/in-the-coast-guards-wargames-climate-change-is-now-a-key-adversary

In the Coast Guard's wargames, climate change is now a key adversary

The military regularly conducts war games, sometimes with real ships and tanks, but also sometimes just a map around a table. Very recently, though, a new adversary has shown up in those games - climate change. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So let's go over this board.

QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: At a base in Portsmouth, Va., two dozen Coast Guard service members - Coasties - recently gathered around tables with poker chips, dice and two giant world maps.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Please place them where - you know, based on your vision and strategy.

LAWRENCE: They put their chips on the priorities they think the Coast Guard should bet on for the next few decades.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Let's get our strategy and vision on the board.

(CROSSTALK)

LAWRENCE: The players wear civilian clothes so no one knows what rank anyone is. That's to make for a better dialogue. In the same spirit, the Coast Guard allowed NPR to record only if the players could be anonymous. We can identify Michelle Ziegler, one of the game masters. She's with the Rand Corporation.

MICHELLE ZIEGLER: It's 2030. You are in the current leadership of the Coast Guard, and you are writing the strategy that's supposed to be for the next 20 years for the Coast Guard.

It was a fun listen if you get a chance.

[A Town Called Malus]

Not sure why it'd be a new adversary. The Coast Guard has been a major player in climate change science for many years.

But still interesting!

[easye]

The Navy (and the Pentagon in general) has also been on the "frontlines" of climate change preparedness. Not really digging into the "If it is happening" or how to stop it, more along the lines of "Let's assume it is happening and plan accordingly".

[easye]

This one is a bit different from the usual fare.....

www.npr.org/2024/06/21/nx-s1-5013508/asteroid-hit-earth-nasa-simulation-emergency-response

Asteroid headed toward Earth? NASA simulation explores how the nation might respond

Imagine if scientists discovered a giant asteroid with a 72% chance of hitting the Earth in about 14 years — a space rock so big that it could not only take out a city but devastate a whole region.

This is the hypothetical scenario that asteroid experts, NASA workers, federal emergency management officials, and their international partners recently discussed as part of a table-top simulation designed to improve the nation’s ability to respond to future asteroid threats, according to a report just released by the space agency.

“Right now we don't know of any asteroids of a substantial size that are going to hit the Earth for the next hundred years,” says Terik Daly, the planetary defense section supervisor at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

[pacific]

Going on the UK's pandemic preparedness, we would bury the results of the investigation and report, then act all surprised when things happen exactly as they did in the exercises and we were not in a position to respond usefully.

[crispy78]

Think it has been mentioned previously, but James Cleverly (was foreign secretary, and subsequently home secretary, in the recently deposed conservative government, for non-UK folks) has just officially come out as a hobbyist:

x.com/JamesCleverly/status/1811339260550627795/

[mdgv2]

Oh god why Dark Angels?

[easye]

This one hit my feed, and it is about political wargaming.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYaDXZ2MI-k

[pacific]

Jul 11, 2024 8:29:17 GMT -5 mdgv2 said:

Oh god why Dark Angels?

This really made me laugh, I am so sorry for you 

[A Town Called Malus]

Jul 11, 2024 8:29:17 GMT -5 mdgv2 said:

Oh god why Dark Angels?

You didn't expect the tories to play the fascists who are constantly trying to cover up their own dark secrets?