Medary.com

The Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, has developed a plan for the U.S. military's response to terror attacks in the U.S.

The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters, outline roles for quick-reaction forces estimated at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of civilian response teams.

The scenarios range from relatively modest crowd-control missions to full- scale disaster management after catastrophic attacks such as the release of a deadly biological agent or the explosion of a radiological device, several officers said.

Some of the worst-case scenarios involve three attacks at the same time; a Pentagon directive earlier this year ordered Northcom, as the command is called, to plan for multiple simultaneous attacks.