White House security from Hollywood blockbusters: Is it possible to capture the White House?

Author: Carved Owl

In the Hollywood popcorn blockbuster "The Fall of the White House", it tells a cliche action hero story that "North Korean extremists occupied the White House with the help of an inside job and super agent Banning saved the president by himself".

However, with the interesting design and Gerald? Butler's wonderful performance, the film still achieved good box office results. However, is it feasible to capture the White House in this seemingly "logically rigorous" Hollywood blockbuster from a practical point of view?

The Fall of the White House in the movie

In the movie, the strongest firepower used by the attacker to paralyze the external defense of the White House is a fictional AC-13 gunboat. After it successfully shot down two intercepted F-22 fighters and dodged the anti-aircraft missiles launched by the White House, it caused huge casualties to snipers on the roof of the White House and Secret Service agents on the lawn with four 2mmM61 revolvers. Although it was eventually shot down, it was eventually shot down.

Subsequently, under the cover of two "machine gun carriers" modified from garbage trucks, the ground attackers successfully defeated the Secret Service agents outside the White House, moved the fighting area to the inside of the White House, and finally succeeded in destroying all the Secret Service personnel by virtue of firepower superiority.

In addition, the spies in the South Korean delegation and the White House security personnel made the president, defense minister and other senior officials fall into the enemy's hands with the White House bunker, and the seemingly indestructible White House fell in a short time. At this time, the rapid reaction force responsible for guarding the White House came late, and it was a headache in the face of such a difficult situation.

gunboats of unknown origin

Let's start from the beginning. The AC-13 gunboat, which was painted with the logo of the US Air Force, provided a fire attack that directly led to the fall of the White House. However, in reality, all the AC-13 gunboats of the US Air Force belong to the Air Force's special operations wing, some of which perform tasks overseas, while others are deployed at home for rest. This gunboat with a total construction quantity of no more than 5 can be said to be the big treasure of the US Air Force Special Operations Wing. How can it easily fall into the hands of the enemy?

Moreover, no air wing around Washington, D.C. owns an AC-13 gunboat, which means it must have taken off from some local airport-after all, it can't take off in the Atlantic Ocean.

Since 25, the sky above the White House has become an absolute no-fly zone, and any aircraft that intends to approach Washington's airspace will be warned and intercepted, even its own military aircraft. Therefore, it is very unreasonable that the AC-13 in the movie was intercepted almost before flying over the White House.

Nonsense air defense

In the movie, this AC-13 shot down two F-22 fighters that came to intercept. However, in the actual interception procedure, one fighter will follow behind the potential threat target and continue to lock it with radar, and the other fighter will give a warning of accompanying flight, so as to shoot it down as soon as possible after the potential threat target makes any threatening move. But obviously, the film director didn't make such an arrangement, otherwise the film could not be made.

What's even more ridiculous is that in this movie, the entire air defense system in Washington is almost paralyzed and has no response to the raging AC-13. In reality, the land-based medium-and long-range air defense system of NASAMS used by the White House and its surrounding air defense units uses the land-based version of SL-AMRAAM missile as the interceptor.

this missile has a more famous code name-AIM-12 series air-to-air missiles. This series of missiles is one of the most advanced medium-range air/surface-to-air missiles in the world at present, with the maximum flying speed of Mach 4, and the guidance mode is inertial guidance plus active radar guidance (instead of the infrared seeker in the movie), with an effective range of more than 75 kilometers, which can theoretically pose a great threat to any military unit flying at low altitude, not to mention the AC-13, a fragile slow attack aircraft that is easy to be shot down.

As for why this amazing AC-13 can evade the attack and detonate the missile by a round of hot flame bomb+chaff interference in the movie, and why the White House air defense system doesn't continue to fight back, I'm afraid it's necessary to catch the writer and ask the truth.

Moreover, the Andrews Air Force Base deployed by the rapid reaction air unit is only eight miles from Washington, where there are two F-16 fighters (not F-22s) waiting to defend the airspace of the capital at any time.

However, in the movie, the director deliberately put the US Air Force in a state of IQ drop, so this AC-13 can kill people in Washington. If you want to look at it from a realistic perspective, this story is quite nonsense-in reality, it will not fly to Washington at all and will be beaten down because it refuses to respond.

Secret Service agents

The most criticized thing about this film is that it describes the Secret Service agents who are responsible for defending the White House and the President as mentally retarded. When facing the enemy who has the advantage of firepower, these agents with pistols and submachine guns are full of blood and rushed out with guns, directly becoming the ghosts under the gun. Otherwise, how can we show the hero's bravery?

But in fact, the Federal Secret Service was established 154 years ago. It is one of the oldest violent organs in the United States, and it is also recognized as the best security unit in the law enforcement system of the United States.

Although the Secret Service is willing to recruit lawyers, language experts and other professionals, the agents in charge of White House security are basically from high-intensity law enforcement or military units, such as Delta, Rangers (the main character of the movie) or Green Berry of the US Army, Special Operations Research Brigade and Navy SEALs of the Navy, as well as the hostage rescue team of the FBI and the FAST team of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

according to white house security officer Allen? Jones revealed that the White House security team even includes the top ten pistol shooters among federal law enforcement officers ... Will such a group of elite soldiers with rich combat experience and special security training rush out and die in vain when their firepower is weaker than the other side? You can think of the answer with your toes.

Moreover, Secret Service agents don't just stay inside the White House-many government agencies, such as the Ministry of Finance, are on standby, and some undercover Secret Service agents "loiter" near the White House. Once the White House is attacked, they will respond quickly, surround the militants and buy time for the withdrawal of the president, instead of "the militants unilaterally advance toward the White House" as shown in the movie.

rapid reaction force

in the movie, the time for the rapid reaction force to arrive at the White House scene is 15 minutes, but in fact, this time will be greatly shortened. The Secret Service used a "red team" to test how long it took the rapid reaction force to arrive at the scene after the White House was attacked. The answer was: less than 1 minutes. Even if the preparation time of the helicopter is included, the rapid reaction force stationed in the surrounding area can basically fly to the White House by helicopter within 5 to 1 minutes, instead of having to act in synchronization with armored vehicles as in the movie.

If an armed attack of the same specification occurs in reality, Secret Service agents only need to rely on the bulletproof buildings and doors and windows of the White House to resist for more than five minutes, and then they can wait for the support of the rapid reaction force-if the elite Secret Service agents don't kill all the attackers.

presidential bunker

In fact, there are many irrationalities in the internal defense of the White House reflected in the film. If the White House is attacked in reality, it is impossible for Secret Service personnel to bring foreign leaders, foreign security personnel and the president into the presidential bunker.

Brett who has worked in the White House for more than 15 years? Daley pointed out that in the White House security rules, once an emergency happens, the president will enter the bunker under the escort of security personnel, and foreign leaders and vice presidents will be escorted by the Secret Service to the nearby Eisenhower Building or other underground bunkers through the underground passage of the White House (they really dug this thing) to escape. But if the film is really shot like this, those militants won't even touch the president's hair.

How to capture the White House

There are more security measures in the White House than the stars in the sky, so it is impossible to list them one by one. In fact, in this film, the methods of capturing the White House are relatively remarkable, including taking the lead in killing the anti-sniper team on the roof of the White House, blocking the access road of the White House with garbage trucks, and destroying the bulletproof glass door of the White House with RPG, etc. However, it is obvious that the writers and directors lack a comprehensive understanding of the security system of the White House and even the whole Washington, D.C., before making jokes.

Dan, who served in the Rangers? Holiday (not his real name) said that this movie is just two groups of armed men with low IQ fighting each other, so as to show the wise SHEN WOO of the protagonist. These North Korean militants don't even have night vision goggles. It is almost impossible to attack the White House from outside by armed elements with limited firepower.

It is even more impossible to use flying units to suppress fire: because you have to cheat many air defense units deployed at different bases and break through the air defense network in Washington, D.C.. Especially after the 9.11 incident, Americans are extremely sensitive to this plane of unknown origin.

He believes that if you want to take the White House by force, you must rise to the scale of war. After using saturated firepower to paralyze the White House air defense system and using a large number of ground troops to contain the rapid reaction force of the SAR, you can use drones and special forces to carry out a surprise attack on the White House. But then again, it is better to throw precision-guided bombs directly at the White House.