In 2002, the Pentagon spent $250M on its largest #WarGames simulation ever — and lost. Retired Marine General #PaulVanRiper played #Iran, sank 19 warships in under 10 minutes, then walked out after the #Pentagon rigged the outcome. The exercise, Millennium Challenge 2002, ran out of Joint Forces ...

In 2002, the Pentagon spent $250M on its largest #WarGames simulation ever — and lost. Retired Marine General #PaulVanRiper played #Iran, sank 19 warships in under 10 minutes, then walked out after the #Pentagon rigged the outcome. The exercise, Millennium Challenge 2002, ran out of Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA, with real troops staged at Fort Bragg and Fort Irwin. Van Riper rejected the US’s 8-point ultimatum, used motorcycle couriers and coded signals from mosque minarets to evade detection, then struck simultaneously with shore missiles, low-radar aircraft, and swarms of explosive speedboats — overwhelming Aegis radar and sinking an aircraft carrier alongside 19 warships, with 20,000 simulated American casualties. The Pentagon halted the exercise, refloated the ships, and ordered Van Riper’s forces to expose their radar and stand down. He walked out. His 21-page after-action critique was immediately classified. Iran spent the following two decades building the exact asymmetric capabilities that simulation exposed.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ — 💻🚀💻🚀💻 #Military history paperplanet simulation war War on the Rocks 11.5.2015 "Mil“ennium Challenge: The Real Story of a Corrupted Military Exercise" W” Are the Mighty "A M“rine Corps General Led a Fictional Iran Against the US Military and Won" N”tional Security Archive 11.1.2024 "Rig“ed War Game Exposed US Vulnerability to Low-Tech Warfare" T”me 3.5.2026 "Tru“p's W’r With Iran" W”kipedia "Mil“ennium Challenge 2002” Follow @_paperplanet_ for more. Help this information get to more voters. 🇺🇸 A well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to Democracy.—Thomas Jefferson https://instagr.am/p/DVs7vhTEVwq/