Red Team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Wargaming, the opposing force in a simulated military conflict is known as the "Red Team", and is used to reveal weaknesses in current military readiness. The approach and the value is depicted in the movie The Dirty Dozen, where a small team of Red Team infiltrators is able to capture the generals in the Blue team command post.

• In the business world, Red Teaming usually means an independent peer review of a concept or proposal.

• In government circles, Red Teaming is normally associated with assessing vulnerabilities and limitations of systems or structures. Various watchdog agencies such as the Government Accountability Office, and the National Nuclear Safety Administration employ red teaming, sometimes with dramatic findings.

• In exercises and wargames, Red Teaming refers to the work performed to provide an adversarial perspective, especially when this perspective includes plausible tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) as well as realistic policy and doctrine.

[edit] Important Cases

• The FAA use of red teaming revealed severe weaknesses in security at Logan International Airport in Boston, where two of the 9/11 jets flew from. Some former FAA investigators who participated on these teams feel that the FAA deliberately ignored the results of the tests and that this resulted in part in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US.

• Billy Mitchell - a passionate early advocate of air power - demonstrated the obsolescence of battleships in bombings against the captured World War I battleship Ostfriesland and the U.S. pre-dreadnought battleship Alabama.

• Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell demonstrated in 1932 the effectiveness of an attack on Pearl Harbor almost exactly showing how the tactics of the Japanese would destroy the fleet in harbor nine years later. Although the umpires ruled the exercise a total success, the umpire's report on the overall exercises makes no mention of the stunning effectiveness of the simulated attack. Their conclusion to what became known as Fleet problem XIII was surprisingly quite the opposite:

It is doubtful if air attacks can be launched against Oahu in the face of strong defensive aviation without subjecting the attacking carriers to the danger of material damage and consequent great losses in the attack air force." [1]

[edit] External links

• FAA Red Team leader Bogdan Dzakovic's report to the 911 commission
• GAO Red Team reveals Nuclear material can easily be smuggled into the United States years after 911 attack.
• Sandia National Laboratories Red Teaming used to spot vulnerabilities as part of the National Nuclear Safety Administration.
• Sandia Red Team.
• Red Team Conference.