This year’s exercise integrates “all the capabilities of US Strategic Command [US STRATCOM] across the globe wherever and whenever needed,” US Air Force General John Hyten, commander of USSTRATCOM, said in a statement.
“We need to integrate our strategic capabilities in order to deliver multi-domain effects against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time,” the general added.
The exercises will apparently involve STRATCOM’s headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base as well as its many subordinate units around the world.
The war games will encompass all of STRATCOM’s major missions, including “strategic deterrence, space operations, cyberspace operations, joint electronic warfare, global strike, missile defense and intelligence.”
The Pentagon has already informed the Russian military of the drills, RIA Novosti reported citing Captain Brian Maguire, spokesman for the Strategic Command. “The US and Russia must notify each other about large-scale nuclear drills under the [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty],” he explained.
According to the spokesman, the ‘Global Thunder’ exercises are focused on enhancing STRATCOM’s “nuclear readiness.”