COLORADO SPRINGS — Military planners at Peterson Air Force Base are plotting how to build an all-out defense of the United States.
The 100 or so planners are identifying troops and equipment across the country that would be mobilized for a fight.
The war blueprint — an operations plan, the most detailed level of military plans — is part of the preparation for launching Northern Command, the Pentagon's homeland defense headquarters that begins operation Oct. 1 at Peterson.
They are sketching out plans for how Northern Command will work with civilian agencies in time of need.
The command's main mission is to protect the United States from an outside attack, but it will have the delicate job of backing up civilian agencies when needed.
Federal law prohibits the military from acting as police inside U.S. borders.
The only exceptions for Northern Command will be if the military has a unique capability, such as fighter jets to intercept hijacked airliners, or if there is an extreme risk too big for the civilian authorities to handle, said Gen. Ed Eberhart, who will be commander of Northern Command.
Otherwise, civilians will be in charge.
The military has helped agencies such as the FBI, local police and state National Guards.
Soldiers have provided security at events such as the Olympics and have cleaned up natural disasters.
"The lines in the road are very clear, and we have been doing this not just for years but for decades, and we know what we can and cannot do," Eberhart said in his first interview since being confirmed as head of Northern Command.
Eberhart will lead the U.S./Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.
Northern Command is the first headquarters to be responsible solely for defending the United States.
The command will be responsible for protecting North America, waters 500 miles off U.S. coasts and part of the Caribbean.
The Pentagon long has carved up the world into areas of responsibility, but the United States has never been under one.
The military has considered creating a homeland command for 10 years. Sept. 11 made it a necessity, Eberhart said.
"We didn't perceive a threat (to the U.S.) prior to 9-11 that warranted establishing a new headquarters," he said. "It became clear on 9-11, tragically, we need to be prepared."
That doesn't mean there were military failures on Sept. 11, he said, but commanders realized there were "seams" in the job of defending the United States that had to be closed.
Northern Command will have 400 to 500 people serving at Peterson.
The command's roughly $70 million annual budget will be small by military standards.
Given the emphasis on homeland defense, the command will have many resources in an attack.
Northern Command will be limited in what it can do because of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The law, enacted because federal Army troops occupied the South during Reconstruction, prohibits the military from acting as law enforcement within the nation's borders.
The law has exceptions. It doesn't apply to National Guard working for the state, actions on federal lands, enforcing certain civil rights laws and other matters. The president can supercede the law if he deems it a national emergency.
Since Sept. 11, some in Congress have suggested the law needs to be changed. The Pentagon and
President Bush has said no change is needed.