Officials have begun a large-scale nuclear incident exercise in New York amid fears of WWIII.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the exercise includes military aircraft, personnel who will carry out scenario threats to be ready ‘to respond in the event of a nuclear incident in the United States or overseas.’
The drills began Sunday, but the agency said the public may now see personnel practising out in the opening. The exercise ends on January 31.
‘The training exercise will not pose risks to area residents. Please do not be alarmed by the activity,’ the FBI shared in a statement.
The agency emphasized that such training exercises have been conducted twice a year across the nation since 2012.
The exercise is meant to simulate a radiological attack, enabling response personnel to practice protecting public health and safety, providing emergency relief to affected populations, and restoring essential services.
While the FBI emphasized that the exercise poses no threat to the public. It comes a month after Vladimir Putin warned that WWIII could erupt if the West continues ‘escalating the situation’ in his latest existential threat over the war in Ukraine.
The FBI is holding a nuclear incident training exercise in New York, warning residents not to be alarmed. Pictured is a previous event in 2022
Putin also accused the West of pushing Russia to its ‘red lines’ and threatened to lift all voluntary restrictions on the deployment of his short and medium-range missiles if the US went ahead and deployed similar weapons.
Nikolai Sokov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat, said at the time the ‘red line’ was intended as a ‘very clear message’: ‘Don’t make a mistake – all these kind of things may mean nuclear war.’
However, FBI Albany Public Affairs Officer Sarah Ruane said: ‘I believe planning for this one began back in the spring.’
She added that these drills are not due to any recent or ongoing world events.
The exercise will primarily occur at and around the Stratton Air National Guard Base, Albany International Airport, and portions of northern Saratoga County.
‘This is an exercise of the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Ground Collection Task Force, which would support the investigation of a nuclear incident,’ said Ruane.
‘The Task Force mission is to collect nuclear debris samples for analysis at the national laboratories.’
While details about the exercises are unknown, previous events saw simulated scenarios to which personnel had to respond.
In March 2024, the New Jersey, Delaware and Idaho National Guard participated in interagency chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosives training with the FBI and state and local law enforcement.
In one training scenario, the FBI received intelligence that a domestic terrorist group had planted bombs — including one with cesium-137, a radioactive isotope — as more than 10,000 people are about to converge on the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton to listen to the vice president.
While the FBI emphasized that the exercise poses no threat to the public. It comes a month after Vladimir Putin warned that WWIII could erupt if the West continues ‘escalating the situation’ in his latest existential threat over the war in Ukraine
A similar exercise was also held in North Dakota in October 2024, (pictured) called Global Thunder 25 (GT25). The purpose of GT25 was to enhance nuclear readiness and ensure a safe, secure, and effective strategic deterrent force
The exercise called for the entire structure to be searched, from the catwalks crisscrossing above the floor to the rooms and suites, the concession stands and the service areas.
A similar exercise was also held in North Dakota in October 2024, called Global Thunder 25 (GT25).
The purpose of GT25 was to enhance nuclear readiness and ensure a safe, secure, and effective strategic deterrent force.
The US military was joined by NATO partners, including personnel from the United Kingdom.
President Donald Trump attended the the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week where he called for nuclear talks with China and Russia.
On Thursday, he expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms.
‘We’d like to see denuclearization … and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear,’ he said in a speech by videolink from the White House.
Trump has called on Russia and China to hold talks about nuclear weapon stockpiles. That comes just one month after Putin threatened that the West could cause WWIII
‘And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too.’
Trump triggered fears of a new arms race by pulling the US out of the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 2019.
The US and NATO accused Russia of violating the pact by deploying a new type of cruise missile, which Moscow denied.
The president also said the treaty was meaningless as it did not cover China’s nuclear arsenal.
‘China has a much smaller, right now, nuclear armament than us or field than us, but they’re going to be catching it at some point over the next four or five years,’ is how he put it Thursday.
He offered no further details on how nuclear talks might work, other than setting out his enthusiasm.
‘Tremendous amounts of money are being spent on nuclear … and the destructive capability is something that we don’t even want to talk about today, because you don’t want to hear it’s too depressing,’ he said.
‘So we want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible.’
Former-President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the greenlight to use of US-supplied long-range missiles last November while still in office.
The Kremlin quickly responded to the move, accusing the White House of ‘fueling the fire’ – with Putin allies even claiming it could lead to World War III.
Trump, however, said in December that it was ‘stupid’ for Biden to let Ukraine use US weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
Last week, Putin congratulated Trump on Monday following the inauguration.
The Russian dictator spoke during a video call with members of Russia’s Security Council just before the event, saying: ‘We hear the statements from Trump and members of his team about their desire to restore direct contacts with Russia, which were halted through no fault of ours by the outgoing administration.’
‘We also hear his statements about the need to do everything to prevent World War III. We certainly welcome such an approach and congratulate the US president-elect on taking office,’ Putin stated.