What is Nifty Nugget? NDAA revives 47-year-old military exercise
By Hope Hodge Seck
Dec 30, 2025, 11:37 AM
In the fiscal 2026 NDAA signed by President Donald Trump, a provision calls for a study modeled on Nifty Nugget and focused on Reserve force mobilization. (Cpl. Jordy Morales/Marine Corps)
In 1978, the Defense Department conducted an exercise to simulate what would happen if it needed to mobilize all U.S. forces globally in the face of an existential conflict.
It didn’t go well.
The 21-day exercise, dubbed “Nifty Nugget,” brought two dozen military commands to bear to support a notional conflict in Europe. Due to major holes in planning, communication and logistics, up to half a million troops were late to the fight, and the conflict resulted in 400,000 U.S. casualties. While the exercise did result in useful insights, such as helping to prompt the creation of U.S. Transportation Command in 1987, the concept of a mass mobilization exercise was summarily shelved.
Until now.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-military/2025/12/30/what-is-nifty-nugget-ndaa-revives-47-year-old-military-exercise/
