Which US ARMY forces would be first to respond to an attack? ?

Question

It's sort of a "what-if" question. Let's say there's a military r&d facility with cca 2.500 personell in Nebraska and all of a sudden cca 200 terrorists manage to infiltrate this facility and engage in a conflict with guards. How long it would take for US military to send reinforcements to this location and what kind of? I'm thinking maybe paratroopers or special forces first with helicopters and aircraft? How soon do you think they could arrive?

Reason for asking is Half Life 1 game, where you can see marines with howitzers, tanks, assault helicopters and fighter aircraft engaging a hostile force (aliens in this case, but terrorists sounds more realistic).

So, what do you think a response of US army would be on this type of incident and what would the time frame be? (air strikes - 1hr? special forces-10hrs?, airborne 24 hrs? How about heavy equipment like tanks?)

Answer 1

In any situation like this it would only been special forces and a plan would be in the making within a few minutes of the call. With any military facility there is a plan already on the books onto how to take back.

Special forces would get close enough to take a good look of the facility and you can be sure they would already have the nerds redirecting the satellites to take a view.

Forces i believe would come from both land and air unless they just decided it was easier to make a cover up and bomb the facility.    

Answer 2

OK, let's ignore the waiting period while FBI (the lead Federal agency in any terrorist incident in the United States) sets up a Joint Operating Center, decides they're in over their heads, and calls a National Security Council Group, who tells the White House that the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team would be outnumbered.

I'd also ignore the guys who are ribbing you about 200 terrorists taking out 2,500 personnel or subduing them.  When you consider that only a relative few of the Army personnel at (say) Fort Detrick or Dugway Proving Ground are riflemen or other combat specialties (most of them will be either scientists, physicians, or enlisted animal care personnel and other technical specialties), and not all of their guard force are going to be where they can draw armor and M-4s when the terrorists drop by and start shooting people, your scenario sounds somewhat more plausible,

At the point when FBI and the assigned National Security Council group decide this "law enforcement action" will require more muscle than FBI has, Special Operations Command would receive a phone call.  Soon after. some black copters from MacDill AFB would scramble; the black copters would pick up some rough fellows from Ft. Bragg on the way to Nebraska, along with their gear.  This would be the guys whose job it is to check out the area.  Time: up to 12 hours, during which the FBI people from the local Field Office and any HRT guys who've made it out there are also trying to find out where the terrorists are and what they're up to.

At T plus 24 hours there should be a plan - either penetration of the facility by SOF assets and possibly HRT agents, or, depending on the exact nature of the threat posed by whatever is in the facility, use of an AC-130U to destroy the terrorists in place.along with whatever hazard exists at the facility.  

The AC-130U is the latest and most flexible model of the AC-130 family and has 40mm and 105mm cannons and 25mm gatling gun.  Given the number of terrorists you mentioned, an AC-130U and a few helicopter gunships should be able to lay down suppressive fire, without the amount of prep work and personnel needed to set up an artillery battery.  

Better target discrimination (terrorist vs. hostage or bystander) is available with the AC-130 family of aircraft than with a field artillery battery because targets are imaged in detail just before firing at comparatively short range with the AC-130 weapons suite.

Given eight hours to load rounds for the plane's weapons and fuel it up, and for intel to brief the crew on the mission, and the plane's speed of 300 mph, the AC-130 ought to be able to make it from Hurlburt Field in Florida to Nebraska in 10-12 hours after the mission is assigned. (2)

Based on how FBI was supported during the Branch Davidian siege, any Special Operations assets or FBI Hostage Rescue team members would probably have access to armored vehicles from local National Guard or Army Reserve motor pools, probably at eight to twelve hours from the start of the incident.

Presidential Decision Directive 39 is mostly classified: if you'd like to see what public information exists on military response to terrorist events involving WMD, I also included a link to US Army Field Manual 3-11.21, "Multiservice Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Aspects of Consequence Management" in the "What's your source" window below under (3).

Answer 3

None. We don't have any left. maybe the Michigan Militia.  

Answer 4

2500 Troops  vs 200 terrorists? US response? Hmmm, 200 body bags, about 1 hr. Get serious, why assume a loss? It's a vid game.

Answer 5

Depends on logistics/capability and who is available closest to the vicinity.

Answer 6

d**n !! Where is Chuck Norris when you need him?

Answer 7

The US Army can deploy 10,000 soldier in under 24 hours dealing with a small force such as 200 i dont think they would send more the 4 medical companys

Answer 8

depending on our readiness level and the small amount of terrorist then the whole situation would be done in hours as for how long it would take to get their that depends on allot of different variables