U.S. Strategic Command has begun this yr’s version of the annual nuclear command & management train referred to as World Thunder.
As we talked about in final month’s article on what’s believed to have been a ‘Skymaster train’, the annual Train World Thunder was anticipated to happen, as standard, in October or November 2025. We now have affirmation from U.S. Strategic Command, or STRATCOM, that World Thunder 26 formally commenced on Oct. 21, 2025.
World Thunder workouts, together with the sister World Lightning workouts that often happen within the Spring, are large-scale coaching regimes that see U.S. strategic forces in addition to extra items, and sometimes a contingent of allied forces, simulate the build-up to and execution of a nuclear conflict situation. To bolster the closeness of the simulation to an actual world occasion, concurrent workouts see the rehearsal of logistics duties, airfield defence, and even casualty administration.
Strategic nuclear bombers, specifically B-52 Stratofortresses and B-2 Spirits, are one of the crucial outstanding components of World Thunder workouts. Mass scrambles will see plane observe minimal interval take-off (MITO) procedures, within the case of the B-52 leaving the skies above stuffed with thick, darkish smoke trails. Command and management plane, the E-6B Mercury TACAMO birds from the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Power’s personal E-4B Nightwatch fleet act as they might in an actual conflict, issuing instructions by way of Emergency Motion Messages (EAMs) transmitted throughout a spread of frequencies and communication strategies. Tanker plane, supporting all the opposite gamers, additionally conduct mass launches simply as they might in the true operational plan.
The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields throughout huge swathes of the USA will participate silently, the crews underground receiving their simulated orders and conducting simulated launches of their nuclear missiles with none indication to the skin world of what’s occurring down under. If, within the situation, the launch management centres (LCCs) that management teams of those missiles have already been destroyed, the ICBMs could be remotely fired from E-6B plane.
Equally, U.S. Navy personnel usually be a part of the train on board one in all fourteen Ohio class ballistic missile submarines, plenty of that are all the time on patrol and ready to be known as upon to launch as much as 20 Trident II D5 ICBMs, carrying a whole bunch of individually focused nuclear warheads. Orders for these submarines will come from E-6Bs flying tight spiral patterns in designated zones over the ocean, trailing behind them two antenna wires. One in all these will stretch from the plane nearly to the floor of the water.
This technique permits for the transmission of very low frequency (VLF) communications which cannot solely journey important distances but in addition penetrate to a sure depth under water, permitting submerged submarines to obtain messages together with firing orders and authorization codes with out revealing their place.
COST 43 (E-6B TACAMO) broadcasting a EAM on VLF over the North Atlantic this morning. 💪😎🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MwlcrhpP3x
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) September 24, 2025
Further U.S. Navy forces, together with Provider Strike Teams (CSGs), are typically known as upon to affix nuclear command & management workouts in help of SSBN taskings. U.S. Navy plane carriers themselves as soon as carried tactical nuclear weapons of their huge inventories, although this observe is known to have ceased within the Nineties. Neither the F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornet nor the F-35C Lightning II which type the majority of a CSG’s strike power have been licensed to hold B61 nuclear bombs.
Because the train progresses by the build-up, and previous the stage of weapon launches (on each pleasant and hostile sides), particular person items, together with floor stations such because the Headquarters of Air Power World Strike Command (AFGSC) at Barksdale Air Power Base – callsign RED RIVER – will stop to operate as a part of the train, simulating their destruction by nuclear detonation.
Throughout some workouts, the destruction of your complete Excessive Frequency World Communications System (HFGCS) floor community – callsign MAINSAIL – has been simulated, with personnel solely in a position to present their companies to real-world visitors.
MAINSAIL has been destroyed, so did this E6 simply broadcast authorization codes to take over because the HFGCS grasp management…? pic.twitter.com/molxSieYi2
— NEET INTEL (@neetintel) August 20, 2025
Each Barksdale and Minot AFBs are anticipated to participate with their B-52 squadrons. Minot is open 24/7 till Oct. 29, whereas Barksdale has been listed as open for “aerodrome official enterprise” solely for a similar interval. This time interval suits with the same old length of World Thunder – between one and two weeks.
Train time. NOTAMS: Minot AFB is open 24/7 now until the twenty ninth. Barksdale AFB is closed until the twenty ninth (however open for official enterprise. A number of 24 hr airspace reservations for the E-6B TACAMO within the Atlantic and Pacific. pic.twitter.com/YEENOgM4LJ
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) October 20, 2025
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World Thunder and World Lightning usually carry with them a rise in sensationalist reporting on social media, owing to the elevated actions of strategic forces in a way, by design, resembling a conflict plan. The U.S., its allies, and different nations like Russia and China conduct nuclear command and management workouts on a routine foundation, and so they shouldn’t be taken as a suggestion that nuclear conflict is in any means imminent.
Nonetheless, they do deliberately represent a degree of signalling to adversaries on the worldwide stage relating to nuclear readiness and intent. Because of this, the workouts are additionally generally known as ‘deterrence’ workouts, forming a part of the general nuclear deterrence posture by reinforcing the actual fact nuclear forces stay alert and consistently geared for motion.
The start of World Thunder this week follows the broader NATO nuclear train Steadfast Midday, which kicked off on Oct. 13 and runs by to Oct. 24. Although typically involving U.S. strategic bomber forces, the first focus of Steadfast Midday is the rehearsal of NATO’s supply of tactical nuclear weapons ahead deployed by the U.S. in Europe to be used by American and allied fighter plane.
2025’s version of Steadfast Midday is the primary the place F-35A Lightning IIs have taken the lead, as most of the NATO air arms with the accountability of deploying these B61 air-dropped weapons have now taken supply of an operational power of the fifth technology multi-role fighters.
