Matthew Reilly Wiki
Matthew Reilly Wiki
Advertisement
Matthew Reilly Wiki

The Chameleon Project was a United States black-project to develop missiles with the same characteristics as other nations.

History[]

Early History[]

Project Chameleon-042 began during the late 20th century, and was arguably one of the most sinister black-projects ever conceived by the United States. Overseen by a small number of U.S. military officials, including General Weitzman, the U.S. military contracted the missile-constructing Axon Corporation to build a number of missiles that perfectly replicated the exact characteristics of intercontinental ballistic missiles built by foreign nations, such as India, Russia and North Korea.

The principle was to use any one of these missiles to strike a target and make it appear as though the country that the missile appeared to be from had fired it, and therefore provide an excuse for the United States to start a war. 

Additionally, it was decided that the Chameleon missiles would work best when used in conjunction with another black-project, Kormoran; warships disguised as tankers. By the early 2000's, Axon Corp had successfully "cloned" several foreign ICBMs, which were kept in storage at their production plants in Norfolk, Virginia, and Guam.

During the development of the Chameleon missiles, it was decided that the security system for activating, launching and deactivating the missiles would come in the form of the CincLock-VII security system, which was successfully integrated into the project by April 2003.

When Majestic-12 began planning to start a new Cold War, they learned of the existence of Chameleon thanks to Axon Corp's current CEO, Jonathan Killian. They planned to destroy a number of western cities in America and Europe, using Chameleon missiles from Iran (the Shahab-5's) and North Korea (Taep'o Dong-2's) to make it appears as a terrorist attack. Using his connections with the French DGSE, Killian would use captured terrorists to stage an attack on both the Norfolk and Guam facilities to hide their involvement in the attack.

While the Kormoran ships taken from Norfolk were loaded with the Chameleon missiles M-12 wanted, the chaos-loving Killian had his own plans, and had the two ships stolen from Guam instead loaded with Chameleon clones of Taiwanese Sky Horses, Pakistani Ghauri-II's and Indian Angi-II's. Furthermore, Killian also arranged for a Chameleon Isreali Jericho-2B armed with an American warhead to be sent to a former Soviet facility in Yemen. As a result of his plan, Killian would not cause a new Cold War, but instead global anarchy.

Scarecrow[]

After capturing Weitzman, a pair of MI6 agents, including Charles Beaton, attempted to interrogate the General about Kormoran using disinhibiting drugs. As he reluctantly rambled on about Kormoran, Weitzman let slip about its connection to Chameleon, but was largely unheard thanks to the chaos caused by Schofield and Knight. After Weitzman was decapitated, Schofield questioned Beaton on what he knew about Chameleon, however, the British agent knew nothing other than that it was connected to Kormoran.

The Mossad agent Benjamin Rosenthal was killed before he could share what he knew of M-12's plan with Schofield's allies, but luckily Book II was able to collect several of his notes. Book II and Scott Moseley discovered Majestic-12's plans for the Chameleon missiles, and ordered a site inspection team intending to visit the Norfolk facility to move in early. The inspection team discovered the apparent terrorist attack at the site, confirming the theft of several Chameleon missiles.

Since Schofield was the only one who could disarm the CincLock-VII systems, he had some of his allies move to the Kormoran ships in San Francisco and New York in order to provide a satellite uplink for him to disarm them, while he infiltrated the MV Talbot in the English Channel. Despite attacks hindering their progress, Schofield soon successfully disarmed the Chameleon missiles intended to hit Europe and North America.

In the process, however, Schofield learned of the additional missiles arranged by Killian, and while both the MV Whale and MV Hopewell could be dealt with easily by submersibles, the one in Yemen would require Schofield to travel there personally to disarm it.

As they were using a pair of X-15s to fly to Yemen at high speed, Killian learned of their approach and launched the Jericho-2B early, prompting Schofield and Rufus to chase after the final Chameleon missile while in flight in order to disarm it. After reaching the appropriate range to use the CincLock-VII, Schofield disarmed the Jericho clone moments before it reached its target city of Mecca.

People Involved[]

Goal[]

The Chameleon Project was designed to recreate the exact same characteristics of missiles from other countries (e.g. flight signatures, contrail wakes and blast signatures). If put to use, these missiles would be launched at a target, any resulting investigation would incorrectly assume that another country - the one who created the original missile - fired it, and allow the United States to declare war by saying the framed country fired first.

The Chameleon Project was to be used in tandem with the Kormoran Project, using disguised warships to launch the cloned missiles from locations not in U.S. territory.

While the U.S. seemed to have no immediate plans to use Chameleon themselves, Majestic-12 almost successfully commandeered the project as part of their intent to create a new Cold War.

Chameleon Missiles[]

  • Agni-I
    • Original Country - India
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - MV Whale
  • Ghauri-II
    • Original Country - Pakistan
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - MV Whale
  • Jericho 2B
    • Original Country - Israel
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - N/A
  • M-5
    • Original Country - France
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - N/A
  • Shahab-5
    • Original Country - Iran
    • Kormoran Launch Vessels - MV Ambrose
  • Sky Horse-3
    • Original Country - Taiwan
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - MV Hopewell
  • SS-18
    • Original Country - Russia
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - N/A
  • Taep'o Dong-2
    • Original Country - North Korea
    • Kormoran Launch Vessels - MV Jewel and MV Talbot
  • Trident-II D-5
    • Original Country - United Kingdom
    • Kormoran Launch Vessel - N/A

Trivia[]

  • The project's name - Chameleon - comes from the eponymous animal's ability to camouflage itself into its environment.
Advertisement