Global Guardian Global Guardian is an annual training exercise sponsored by the United States Strategic Command in conjunction with Air Force Space Command and NORAD . Its main purpose is to test the military ' s command and control procedures in the event of nuclear warfare . Global Guardian is performed in conjunction with " Vigilant Guardian " , the annual training exercise conducted by NORAD in which a threat to North American airspace is simulated . The simulated scenario is varied from year to year . Global Guardian and the September 11 Attacks . The September 11 attacks in 2001 occurred during that year ' s Global Guardian and Vigilant Guardian joint exercises . That year , according to the 9 / 11 Commission Report , Vigilant Guardian ' postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union ' on North America . The Russian 37th Air Army was , in fact , conducting major bomber exercises across the Arctic and Atlantic at this time , amongst the largest carried out by them since 1993 . Both the American and the Russian exercises were cancelled after the attack . The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States investigated the possibility that Vigilant Guardian preparations compromised the military ' s response to the attacks on September 11 . They concluded that the exercise may have had , in fact , the effect of expediting the response to the attacks . On page 17 of the 9 / 11 Commission Report when Boston center calls NEADS ( Northeast Air Defense Sector ) , the response from NEADS was " is this real world or exercise ? " . According to the 9 / 11 Commission ' s staff statement No . 17 , for instance , page 26 of the Commission ' s final report documents FAA ' s report of a " phantom flight 11 " at 9 : 21 , 35 minutes after the real flight 11 crashed into the WTC and even longer after the war games are alleged to have been aborted . However , General Ralph Eberhart told the 9 / 11 Commission “ it took about 30 seconds ” to make the adjustment to the real - world situation ( note 116 to chapter 1 ) . The Vigilant Guardian war game was discussed in chapter 1 , footnote 116 of the 9 / 11 Commission Report : " On 9 / 11 , NORAD was scheduled to conduct a military exercise , Vigilant Guardian , which postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union . We investigated whether military preparations for the large - scale exercise compromised the military ' s response to the real - world terrorist attack on 9 / 11 . According to General Eberhart , " it took about 30 seconds " to make the adjustment to the real - world situation . Ralph Eberhart testimony , June 17 , 2004 . We found that the response was , if anything , expedited by the increased number of staff at the sectors and at NORAD because of the scheduled exercise . See Robert Marr interview ( Jan . 23 , 2004 ) . " The following is a list of all the operations being carried out on September 11 by the military : 1 . OPERATION NORTHERN VIGILANCE : This was planned months in advance of 9 / 11 ; On the morning of 9 / 11 , where military resources were sent to Alaska in response to Russian military exercises . . 2 . BIOWARFARE EXERCISE TRIPOD II : Rudolph Giuliani made referenced to Tripod 2 in his testimony to the 9 / 11 Commission . The Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) arrived in New York on September 10 to set up a command post located at Pier 29 under the auspices of a ' biowarfare exercise scheduled for September 12 . This explains why Tom Kenney of FEMA ' s National Urban Search and Rescue Team , told Dan Rather of CBS News that FEMA had arrived in New York on the night of September 10 . Giuliani was to use this post as a command post on 9 / 11 after he evacuated WTC Building 7 . " We were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was gonna collapse , " Rudolph Giuliani told Peter Jennings of ABC News . 3 . OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN : This exercise simulated hijacked planes in the north eastern sector . Lt . Col . Dawne Deskins , NORAD unit ' s airborne control and warning officer , was overseeing the exercise . At 8 : 40am she took a call from Boston Center which said it had a hijacked airliner . Her first words , as quoted by Newhouse News Service were , " It must be part of the exercise " . 4 . OPERATION NORTHERN GUARDIAN : The details of this exercise are still scant but it is considered to be part of Vigilant Guardian , relating to simulating hijacked planes in the north eastern sector . 5 . OPERATION VIGILANT WARRIOR : This was referenced in Richard Clarke ' s book ' Against All Enemies ' . It is thought to have been the ' attack ' component of the Vigilant Guardian exercise .