US military has an actual zombie apocalypse plan

If you’re currently bunkered down in preparation for the forthcoming zombie apocalypse, have no fear: The U.S. military has a plan to help defend you from the walking dead.

Foreign Policy got its hands on the plan, which was created as a part of a creative planning exercise but nonetheless lives on today in the bowels of the Department of Defense’s computer network.

It’s called “CONOP 8888” and serves as a how-to guide for isolating the zombie threat, should it ever become real.

“This plan fulfills fictional contingency planning guidance tasking for U.S. Strategic Command to develop a comprehensive [plan] to undertake military operations to preserve ‘non-zombie’ humans from the threats posed by a zombie horde,” CONOP 8888’s plan summary reads. “Because zombies pose a threat to all non-zombie human life, [Strategic Command] will be prepared to preserve the sanctity of human life and conduct operations in support of any human population — including traditional adversaries.”

The plan, dated April 30, 2011, was created by military planners at the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Neb., according to Foreign Policy. The planners had to get creative when they developed training plans because they didn’t want to risk political fallout if a document were released to the American public and believed to be real (no danger, here).

“Rather than risk such an outcome by teaching our augmentees using the fictional ‘Tunisia’ or ‘Nigeria’ scenarios used at (Joint Combined Warfighting School), we elected to use a completely-impossible scenario that could never be mistaken for a real plan,” the authors wrote.

Of course, despite their intentions, the U.S. is covered in the event a zombie attack does happen. The plan has three main goals:

• To “establish and maintain a vigilant defensive condition aimed at protecting humankind from zombies”
• To “if necessary, conduct operations that will, if directed, eradicate zombie threats to human safety”
• To “aid civil authorities in maintaining law and order and restoring basic services during and after a zombie attack”

The plan itself might not be an official military strategic guide, but military officials do hope it reflects the military’s goal to always be prepared.

“I hope we’ve invested a similar level of intellectual rigor against dragon egg hatching contingencies,” one defense official said.

On a similar note, the U.S. Air Force also wants you to know that yes, it could handle a Godzilla attack.