Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media about DEFCON. Some are undoubtedly written as clickbait or perhaps even rage bait. But based on what I’m reading in the posts and comments, an awful lot of people don’t seem to understand what DEFCON is and what these levels mean.
What is DEFCON?
DEFCON is military shorthand for Defense Readiness Condition. It refers to a system that’s been in use by the U.S. military since 1959. The system involves five levels of readiness or states of alert that are represented by numbers 1 through 5.
When the Joint Chiefs of Staff implemented the system, this is what they wrote about DEFCON in their memo:
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A uniform system of progressive readiness is essential in ensuring timely, accurate, and clear direction of commands subordinate to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in achieving greater effectiveness of U.S. forces in preparation for execution of contingency or emergency war plans. It will also assist in more rapid interpretation and evaluation of the readiness posture of the unified and specified commands.
Many of you are no doubt familiar with Colonel Jeff Cooper’s system for gauging situational awareness, often referred to as Cooper’s Color Code.
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Condition White means you’re unaware of your surroundings, such as when you’re daydreaming or preoccupied.
Condition Yellow means you’re aware of what’s going on around you, but there are no specific threats.
Condition Orange means something has caught your eye and needs your attention. There is a specific threat to your safety. You’re playing scenarios in your head, such as if that guy begins moving toward you, you’re going to shift to the left and deploy your weapon.
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Condition Red means you’re taking action, whether that’s to engage the threat or flee the area.
DEFCON levels are similar to Cooper’s Color Code, just on a national scale regarding our military readiness rather than individual situational readiness. They aren’t directly related, of course. They’re more like kissing cousins.
What Are the DEFCON Levels?
The levels run numbers 1-5. In broad terms, the lower the number, the greater the danger.
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5 – The lowest state of readiness. All is calm. There is nothing specific of note when it comes to potential threats. We’re watching the world, but nothing has caught our attention.
4 – A heightened state of awareness due to global events. There are no specific risks to the U.S. as of yet, but we’re keeping an eye on things, just in case.
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3 – Something specific is going on, and we’re preparing to respond as needed. We moved to DEFCON 3 on 9/11.
2 – This is the second-highest state of readiness. Our troops are prepped, and they are ready to deploy within hours. We hit DEFCON 2 in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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1 – Nuclear war is imminent. We are ready to launch. Fortunately, we’ve never hit this DEFCON level.
DEFCON is Classified
It’s important to note that the official DEFCON status is classified information and is not released to the public. There are a few websites out there that purport to state the current DEFCON level at any given time. However, the information they are reporting is unofficial and based on their own suppositions about the state of the world.
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They might be spot on, or they might be wildly inaccurate. Suffice it to say that those who run the DEFCON system are probably privy to more accurate information than the folks running those websites.
