EMERGCON

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "EMERGCON" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "EMERGCON" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article does not cite any sources containing significant coverage. Please help improve this article by adding citations to sources containing significant coverage. Find sources: "EMERGCON" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "EMERGCON" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

EMERGCON (emergency condition) is a state of readiness that is separate from DEFCON, or defense readiness condition used by the United States, in that it incorporates civilian measures in addition to the DEFCON military measures.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

Generally, EMERGCONs are a state of readiness following an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) attack. Other forces go to DEFCON 1 during EMERGCONs. There are two types of EMERGCONs:

• Defense Emergency: A major hostile attack on United States and/or allied forces overseas, and/or an overt action made against the United States. This must be confirmed by a unified commander or higher authority.
• Air Defense Emergency: A major hostile attack by aircraft or missiles seems probable, is imminent, or is taking place on the continental United States, Canada, or Greenland. This declaration is made by the Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Although the United States military has gone into defense readiness at various times (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis), it has never had an EMERGCON.

See also

• DEFCON
• LERTCON
• REDCON
• Alert state
• Information Operations Condition

References

This United States military article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

• v
• t
• e