Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of nuclear war or other catastrophic event.
COG was developed by the British government during World War II to counter the threat of Luftwaffe bombing during the Battle of Britain. The need for continuity-of-government plans gained new urgency with nuclear proliferation.
Countries during the Cold War and afterwards developed such plans to avoid confusion and disorder in a power vacuum in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
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By country
France
The Centre d'Opération des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques (COFAS) is a hardened command center for French nuclear forces in Taverny, Val d'Oise. The alternate national command center is located at Mont Verdun near Lyon.
The hardened headquarters of Force Océanique Stratégique (FOST), France's nuclear SSBN fleet, is at Houilles, Yvelines.
United Kingdom
The primary British COG headquarters is at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall. An alternate national command center was previously maintained in a quarry complex (nicknamed Hawthorn) near Corsham, Wiltshire. The above-ground support facility is RAF Rudloe Manor.
Service command centers are Northwood for the Royal Navy Trident SSBN force, and RAF High Wycombe for the Royal Air Force.
United States
- Each facility is counterpart to its peacetime equivalent.
- Site R (Raven Rock) → The Pentagon (Department of Defense)
- Mount Weather → Federal Emergency Management Agency(Used temporarily for Members of Congress in Sept. 2001)
- Camp David → Executive Office of the President
- Unknown → United States Congress (The Greenbrier was to be used until 1992, when it was decommissioned)
- Cheyenne Mountain → North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
- United States Strategic Command Center (Offutt Air Force Base) → United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)
- Former site:
- National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (Mount Pony) → Department of Treasury/Federal Reserve (sold off in 1997 to the National Audiovisual Conservation Center)
- Project Greek Island (Greenbriar Bunker - Exposed in press and removed from service)
- Also, mobile systems are used for additional command and control.
- E-4, EC-135, and E-6 are all airborne command centers.
- Air Force One is the term for any USAF plane the President of the United States travels on. However, the term normally refers to a Boeing VC-25A the President normally uses. While the VC-25A is equipped with numerous systems to ensure its survival, in an emergency, it would be recommended that he use the National Airborne Operations Center, a Boeing E-4 specially built to serve as a survivable mobile command post. The Secretary of Defense may also use it, as a member of the National Command Authority. It is also possible that the President would authorize the Vice President to use it, depending on the circumstances.
- An E-6 Mercury, codenamed Looking Glass, is USSTRATCOM's Airborne Command Post, designed to take over in case NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center is destroyed or incapable of communicating with strategic forces.
- NORAD owns and operates a mobile vehicular command center
- National Program Office was established as a shadow government by the Reagan administration.
See also
- Central Government War Headquarters
- Charles E. Allen
- Civil Contingencies Secretariat
- Continuity of Government Commission
- Continuity of Operations Plan
- Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Designated survivor
- Disaster recovery
- National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
- Shadow government
- Wartime Information Security Program
External links
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