🚨Trump just revealed the White House ballroom is MUCH more than we previously thought - He's building a straight-up MILITARY hospital, research facilities, military meeting rooms, 360 degree defenses, drone capacity, sniper capacity, drone & missile proofing and the ballroom protects it all.
(twitter.com)
💥 BOOOOOOM 💥
He kinda glossed over it. But he stated it went down 6 stories. With two floors in the process of being constructed. Realistically with the general rule of thumb of 1 floor per story. Meaning there’s likely going to be 6 floors. Depending on how you want to interpret it. It could be 7 floors including the ballroom. Or 5 floors of bunker. With the Ballroom making up the 6th floor.
Hardened against Drones and Conventional Munitions. A Hospital of some shape or fashion. Probably on the smaller scale. But still a massive upgrade to Whitehouse capacity. Meeting Rooms and Research Facilities. The ability to launch and receive drones is also an interesting feature. As there’s the current ones being used to such gruesome effect in Ukraine. But the Military has been planning on Ground Based Drone Systems as well as variants adopted for large scale cargo capacity. So any potential threat at the White House could rapidly see the Defenders reinforced by heavy weapons systems. If some of the Drone Systems the Military is working on are any indication.
It’s Likely also setting up for a permanent Military presence at the White House beyond the handful of current ceremonial Guards. As he specifically mentions Prepared Military Snipers positions. It’s also likely the complex will have a small Security Garrison of its own. With it not being left to Secret Service. Though it’s possible they might transition Presidential Security over to the Military. Given the track record of Secret Service in guarding Presidents isn’t exactly stellar all things considered.
It’s fairly likely most of it will ultimately remain classified. But it remains immensely interesting
It was subtle, but he told them to look "over there" where there was still a big hole, and said that goes down 6 floors. He didn't say anything about any of the rest of the areas. I would bet the area where I believe the PEOC, the Ops and Comm centers, and temp living quarters would be MUCH lower than 6 stories. He told one reporter he couldn't talk about some of the stuff.
They already have an operations room under the Whitehouse proper. Unless they plan on moving all National Security Facilities/infrastructure from other areas of the Whitehouse to the Ballroom complex. Which is a possibility.
At the moment though we don’t have a reason to suspect it’s any deeper than the stated 6 stories. Granted I’m just assuming they’d run the risk of interfering with surrounding Civilian Infrastructure and structures if they stretched it deeper. Given the amount of earth they’d need to move and the regional geography. Not to mention how heavily developed Washington D.C is. 6 stories is about how far down the Metro Stations go on average at any rate.
Though to be fair how he worded it leaves the potential for it to be far deeper. Liable the complex will stretch under the White House grounds completely. With the Ballroom being the major entrance. Which means the lower levels could be far larger than the footprint of the Ballroom.
The Main thing I’d be curious about is what research facilities would be located on site. And presumably so top secret they’d need to be positioned under the already Heavy Security guarding the Whitehouse grounds.
Presumably they’d likely be of minimal physical hazard. Given the location under the White House, proximity to the President, and the fact its in the middle of a major urban area.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the facilities I think will be built there connect to the old PEOC and associated facilities. They found out during 9/11 the area was just too cramped for everyone that would be there in a crisis. But - they still exist, are operational, and could be switched to lower-level members as opposed to the JCS, POTUS/VP, and the major combat commanders that would ideally be there. Personally I'd rebuild them with fresh wiring and current technology.
When I was at the Pentagon in the late 90s the Comm Center was still using pneumatic tubes (the ones banks use to send stuff back and forth to people in drive-up lanes) to deliver classified messages (including Top Secret) to various offices inside the Pentagon. They changed that shortly after I left the comm center and went to help found the Network Security shop (monitoring and assessing/hacking the internal unclassified networks).
Besides - it would be good to connect the 2 areas underground so POTUS would have 2 ways to quickly get below ground if the need arises.
For the amount of earth being removed - I wonder if some of it is being taken out through the tunnels so that nobody can get a good idea of just how big this will be underground?
I'm not sure about the research facilities - that may have been a euphemism Trump used to hide what will really be built there. I have no theory on it either way, but I would assume dangerous chemical/drug research wouldn't be done in the White House. Maybe it is really an area for military to research the capabilities and habits of whichever adversary is attacking us? Research can be a mushy word.
Indeed it can be a flexible word. Though the term ‘Facility’ would at the very least carry the implication of something more complex and elaborate than a Cubicle farm of analysts evaluating the motivations, habits, and capabilities of the competition.
The presence of a full on Hospital would throw a further spanner in the works. Even a small Hospital would suggest there’d likely be some sort of hazardous work being done on site. It’s not likely they’d build an entire underground hospital just so the President can avoid leaving the grounds for Walter-Reed or another Military Medical Facility in the area.
It’s also not liable to deal with run of the mill grunts and typical Military medical issues either. Given both its presence under the Whitehouse. And the plethora of so many other Military Medical Facilities in the immediate area.
Which would suggest its either going to be a specialized facility or has some other reason for its construction. The most obvious reasoning being it is related to the Research that might be undertaken there.
Granted it could all be overstatements that Trump is known for. With the Research Facilities really being exceptionally fancy analyst areas. Maybe with fancy tech not readily available at older facilities. There’s been some companies experimenting with various VR and AR systems for engineers and stuff. Which could be useful for analysts.
And the ‘Hospital’ is really just a glorified clinic that can deal with minor injuries and illnesses. Along with any motion sickness and other minor complaints that can come from VR/AR usage.
The White House wings were always over bunkers. That's where the Presidential panic room is. The wings were built to cover it.