Another Military Exercise Relevant to 9/11 is "Amalgam Virgo"

In June 2001, the Amalgam Virgo exercise was run which tested the idea of a cruise missile being fired from off the coast of the US onto the mainland, as a possible type of terrorist attack.

If such an exercise were run on 9/11, it might explain how a cruise missile or some sort of small drone could have hit the Pentoagon.

Here is an article about the exercise from GlobalSecurity.org

Here
is a good thread at the Let's Roll site about Amalgam Virgo.

Here is a post I initally found on Google but seems to be from a Let's Roll thread I can't locate right now:

9-11 'Drills': Amalgam Virgo Briefing Paper Origins & Other Information

Herb Briggs was very perceptive in his analysis that the Amalgam Virgo briefing document (PDF format) did not appear to be a military FX (Field eXercise) document. He is correct.
Quote:

I believe this is disinformation to cover the potential that Amalgam Virgo was the actual 9/11 FTX involving the cruise missile that hit the pentagon.

That entire description, the .pdf, all of that is disinformation. All total lies.
That .pdf is the lamest phony I've ever seen. Are you serious? LOOK at that thing - you expect me to believe that's an actual document used to describe a real FTX? PHONY!!!!!!
The Amalgam Virgo 35 page briefing document was June 2001 SLAAD committee powerpoint slide presentation made to the military, defense contractors, federal agencies and others. This is why it does not look like a military FX briefing.

National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)
The Strike, Land Attack and Air Defense Division (SLAAD)
Amalgam Virgo PDF document is Volume 2: Emerging Cruise Missle Threat
http://tinyurl.com/6jko7

Background Information from NDIA Mission Statement
http://tinyurl.com/5raoa

Quote:

The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) was founded March 1, 1997. It began on that date as a result of a merger between the former American Defense Preparedness Association (ADPA), which was founded in 1919, and the National Security Industrial Association (NSIA), which was founded in 1944. The new NDIA is a non-partisan, non-profit international association with offices in Arlington, VA.

The association’s membership base consists of over 1,100 corporate members and more than 29,000 individuals from the entire spectrum of the defense and national industrial bases, from government and from foreign nations with whom the United States, through DoD, has a Memorandum of Understanding.
From National Defense Magazine
http://tinyurl.com/6g6tj

Quote:

Lack of ‘Single Integrated Picture’Hinders Commanders, Study Says
November 2001 by Sandra I. Erwin

If a cruise missile—fired from a ship or a submarine offshore—entered U.S. airspace, national authorities would detect it, but would not know where it came from.

Such a scenario was presented at a summer 2001 counter-terrorism exercise conducted by the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). One of the situations in the exercise, called Amalgam Virgo ‘01, was the firing of a cruise missile from a nondescript merchant ship in the Gulf of Mexico, into the U.S. mainland. Because cruise missiles fly at low altitudes, NORAD would not be able to see them from beyond the horizon.

The cruise-missile threat is just one example of the types of vulnerabilities that could be solved if the Defense Department and the military services had a real-time “single integrated picture” of any given battle zone, concluded a study titled “Roadmap to the Single Integrated Picture.”

The conclusion of the NORAD exercise was that “we are naked,” said Stephen R. Woodall, the director of the study. “We have no capability to deal with that kind of problem.”

A single integrated picture, or SIP, would give U.S. military forces access to reliable information about ground, air, space or undersea threats in any given theater of operations, including the continental United States, said Woodall.

A SIP, he added, would improve homeland defense. “You need a SIP around the United States.” NORAD can see every airplane in the sky and every satellite in space, but that is “not good enough for cruise missile defense.”

Thirty-five companies and 27 defense agencies participated in the study, which was sponsored by the Strike, Land Attack and Air Defense Committee of the National Defense Industrial Association.

See linked article for more.
From the Tampa Tribune

Exercise Simulates Terrorist Missile Attack
June 3, 2001
Section: FLORIDA/METRO
Page: 5
by George Coryell
Memo: MILITARY DISPATCHES

George Coryell covers military issues and can be reached at (813) 259-7966.

The Florida Panhandle was the site of a simulated terrorist attack against the United States using a cruise missile.

The 1st Air Force, the Air National Guard organization responsible for defending the airspace of the continental United States under the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is testing its abilities to find and shoot down drones this weekend. The exercise, using elements of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Coast Guard, began Friday and will continue until Monday.

There are an estimated 75,000 cruise missiles in the world, and at least 75 countries have them in their arsenals. A missile capable of flying 900 miles and carrying 40 pounds of explosives or weapons of mass destruction such as biological agents can be purchased on the international black market for $80,000, unit spokesman Maj. Don Arias said.

"We're quite vulnerable to cruise missiles," Arias said.

The Amalgam Virgo exercise at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City tested a radar system that utilizes feeds from traditional radar, Airborne Warning and Control System planes, naval Aegis radar and ground mobile radar to give a clearer picture of the sky. Arias said current defense capabilities work well at 10,000 feet and above, but not well below that. Cruise missiles typically hug the Earth.

Drones simulating cruise missiles will be launched from Tyndall, head out to sea, circle a ship as if it were launched from there, and head back to land. Air Force F-16s, Navy gunners and Army missile defense units will attempt to find and track the drones. The Coast Guard will attempt to catch the ship serving as the dummy launch site.

"A rogue nation or terrorist could launch from sea and get real close before we even saw it," Arias said.

The new radar system is mobile and could be used at events such as the
Olympics that might be susceptible to terrorist attacks, Arias said.
From 911 Commission Testimony

Quote:

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: Well, obviously, it would be hard to imagine posturing for the exact scenario but isn’t it a fact, Sir, that prior to September 11th, 2001, NORAD had already in the works, plans to simulate in an exercise, a simultaneous hijacking of two planes in the United States.

Maj. Gen. Craig McKinle: Col. Scott, do you have any data on that? I’m not aware of that, Sir. I was not present at the time.

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: That was operation Amalgam Virgo.

Col. Alan Scott: Yes, Sir. Specifically, operation Amalgam Virgo, which I was involved in before I retired, was a scenario using a Third-World United, not United, uninhabited aerial vehicle launched off a rogue freighter in the Gulf of Mexico. General Arnold can back me up, at the time, one of our greatest concerns was the proliferation of cruise missile technology and the ability for terrorists groups to get that technology and get it close enough to our shores to launch it. In fact, this exercise, in this exercise we used actual drone, MQM 107 drones, which are about the size of a cruise missile to exercise our fighters and our radars in a Gulf of Mexico scenario.

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: You are referring to Amalgam ’01, are you not?

Col. Alan Scott: Yes, Sir.

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: I’m referring to Amalgam ’02, which was in the planning stages prior to September 11th, 2001, Sir. Is that correct?

Col. Alan Scott: That was after I retired and I was not involved in ’02.

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: Will you accept that the exercise involved a simultaneous hijacking scenario?

Col. Alan Scott: I was not involved in ’02.

Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley: Sir, I do have some information on ’02, if you would allow me to read it for the record?

Richard Ben-Veniste, Commissioner: Please.

Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley: Amalgam Virgo, in general, ’02, was an exercise created to focus on peacetime and contingency NORAD missions. One of the peacetime scenarios that is and has been a NORAD mission for years is support to other government departments. Within this mission falls hijackings. Creativity of the designer aside, prior to 9/11, hijack motivations were based on political objectives, ie: asylum or release of captured prisoners or political figures. Threats of killing hostages or crashing were left to the scriptwriters to invoke creativity and broaden the required response for players.
The Raytheon (Beech) MQM-107 Streaker Drones
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-107.html
Quote:

The MQM-107 Streaker is a high-subsonic subscale aerial target used by the U.S. Army and Air Force.

The MQM-107A is powered by a turbojet in a nacelle under the fuselage, and is launched from a zero-length launcher with the help of a single solid-propellant rocket booster. The target can fly preprogrammed missions, but can also be controlled from the ground through a radio command guidance system. The Streaker's flight envelope includes speeds from about 370 km/h (200 kts) to 926 km/h (500 kts), constant high-g turns, and flight at very low altitudes. The target is recovered by a two-stage parachute system, which is initiated either automatically by loss of critical systems, or by ground command. The MQM-107A can use the usual variety of payloads for aerial targets, including radar, IR, and visual augmentation devices, scoring devices, and countermeasures. One of its main tasks is towing various sub-targets for radar- and IR-guided missile and gunnery training.
SMART-1 (Small Manned Aerial Radar Target – Model 1) Drone
http://www.freedomjet.com/missions.htm
The SMART-1 drones used in Amalgram Virgo 2001 (AV-01) exercixe are manned micro-jets manufactured by Aerial Productions International, Inc. of Arizona.
Quote:

The FREEDOM JET goes Military!

Now known as the Small Manned Aerial Radar Target, Model 1 (SMART-1), the tiny jet aircraft that have een performing air shows for the last quarter century have been "drafted" by the military.

The low radar cross section (RCS), manned feature, dependability and economy make the aircraft a natural threat representative and support system for:

• New system research, design and development
• Early system testing
• Unit training
• Major exercise threat display activities
• Homeland defense development, testing and training efforts

Military organizations that have employed the SMART-1 include:

• Joint Cruise Missile Defense (JCMD), Eglin Air Force Base
• Joint Combat Identification and Evaluation Team (JCIET), Eglin AFB
• Reconnaissance, Strike and Combat ID Branch, (RSCIB),
Air Force Labs, WPAFB
• CDT & E LSST 2001, White Sands Missile Range
• Area Cruise Milssile Defense/Advanced Concept Technology
Demonstration (ACMD/ACTD), Tyndall AFB
• Amalgam Virgo 01 (AV-01), Tyndall AFB
• Naval Weapons Center (NWC), China Lake, CA