(CNN) — A trip to the Winter Olympics in Sochi should be all about superhuman feats of skill or endurance on skis, skates or bobsleighs. But hearing the talk of U.S. security plans in the run-up to the Games in Russia next month, visitors may think they are entering a war zone.
Contingency plans for evacuating Americans in case of an attack are well in hand, it would seem.
The United States is moving to two warships into the Black Sea. If ordered, helicopters could be launched from there to Sochi, a U.S. official told CNN recently.
And if more capacity is needed, C-17 transport aircraft will be on standby in Germany and could be on the scene in about two hours.
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That’s in addition to U.S. precautions on Russian soil, where FBI agents are now arriving in Sochi to work with their Russian counterparts, according to Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee.
The United States has also discussed at the highest levels the sharing of its high-tech bomb detection technology — developed to protect service members from deadly homemade bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan — with Russia.
Concern over explosives is heightened because the radical Islamists who have threatened to attack the Sochi Games have a track record with hidden bombs. One was detonated under a stadium grandstand in Grozny in 2004.
Look who’s watching over you at Sochi
And with the largest delegation of any nation to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, as well as — according to McCaul — 10,000 to 15,000 Americans as spectators, the United States appears to be taking nothing for granted when it comes to security.
American athletes, coaches and staff are being warned not to wear their red, white and blue Olympic uniforms outside the “ring of steel,” the Russian security cordon surrounding Sochi.
They also will be under the watchful eye of U.S. security officials who will attend events with them, according to State Department officials.
Travel warning issued
The State Department went so far last week as to issue an updated travel alert for the region, warning Game-goers that bombings and abductions continue in Russia, particularly in the North Caucasus region.
It cited media reports about the hunt in Sochi by Russian authorities for “black widows,” wives of dead insurgents who act as suicide bombers, even as it said the U.S. government has not corroborated the reports.
The reports were just one example of what one senior State Department official has described as an “uptick in threat reporting” in the lead-up to the Winter Games.
“Our expectation is that we will see more in the coming weeks,” the official, speaking on background, told reporters during a briefing on Olympic security measures.
But is the U.S. contingency planning in line with the potential threat?
Security expert Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane’s intelligence review in London, thinks not.
“It’s normal for countries to outline contingency plans for the removal of their nationals from any country in which there’s a risk to them,” he said. “At the same time, this is usually only undertaken in very serious situations such as cases of civil war or other kinds of conflict.
“In the event of a terrorist attack on someone in Sochi, even if it was around the city or venues, I don’t think the idea of there being a U.S. military evacuation of their citizens from there would be a realistic prospect.”
This, says Clements, is because it would cause huge logistical difficulties, would likely be overkill in terms of the situation and “probably the Russians wouldn’t be very happy.”
‘We’ve had conversations‘
The satellite image company DigitalGlobe and Google Earth have provided a look at the transformation of the location of the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Look at how the area, known as the “Coastal Cluster” has been transformed for the games. Here you can see the area where the Olympic Village will be built as it it appeared in April 2005.
Sochi as it appeared in September 2007.
In March 2010, the initial ground work for the future Olympic Village and venues can be seen.
By September 2011, construction was well underway.
In this photo from March 2013, the buildings that will become Olympic venues can be clearly seen.
From the top center, going clockwise: the large rectangular building is the Adler Arena Skating Center, the smaller squarish building is a training rink for figure skating, then the Iceberg Skating Palace, the round dome near the bottom center is the Fisht Olympic Stadium, and the smaller white-topped building is the Bolshoy Ice Dome.
A wider view of the area is seen on January 2.
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Photos: Building Sochi’s Olympic village
The sun rises over Sochi’s Olympic Park on January 10, 2014. The 2014 Winter Olympics will run February 7 – 23 in Sochi, Russia. Six thousand athletes from 85 countries are scheduled to attend the 22nd Winter Olympics. Here’s a look at the estimated $50 billion transformation of Sochi for the Games.
Soaring snowcapped peaks, some topping 10,000 feet, tower over the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on January 22, 2007. These are Russia’s first Olympic Games, although the former Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.
The city of Sochi, which is also a fishing town, was among three finalists bidding for the Olympics. Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, also competed.
In the Imeretinskay Valley, a woman plays with a dog in February 2007, near an advertisement for the Olympic Park soon to be built in the area. Organizers of the Sochi Olympics say they want these Games to be the greenest, most environmentally aware games ever staged.
Construction vehicles travel along the Imeretinskaya Valley, the site of Olympic facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, in April 2009.
Ice events will be held in a “cluster” near the Black Sea in the Imeretinskaya Valley. The second “cluster” will be for skiing and sliding events and will be held in the Krasnaya Polyana Mountains.
People work on their vegetable gardens near the construction site of the Olympic facilities in the Imeretinskaya Valley in April 2009.
This September 2010 photo shows ski facilities under construction in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi.
The Grand Ice Palace, intended for ice hockey, is under construction here in October 2010.
A construction worker walks on the top of the building site of the Bolshoi Ice Palace in Sochi in June 2010.
Pictured here from the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort is the combined motor and rail road that runs between Olympic sites.
Central stadium is under construction in Sochi’s Olympic Park in December 2011.
Sochi’s new Adler Arena for speed skating is pictured in November 2012.
Sochi’s new Adler Arena for speed skating is pictured in November 2012.
Construction continues on Sochi’s “Iceberg” Skating Palace in February 2012.
The Iceberg figure-skating and short-track venue is pictured in September 2013.
The “coastal cluster” venues for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games are pictured in January 2014 in Sochi.
The Olympic rings for the 2014 Winter Olympics are installed in Sochi on September 25, 2012.
About 37,000 security officers will be deployed for the Sochi Games. Police officers walk in front of the main press center at the Olympic Park in Sochi on January 7, 2014.
The Olympic rings light up the sky outside Sochi International Airport. An estimated 3 billion people are expected to watch the Olympics on television.
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Sochi transformed
Are the Olympics too big a target?
Just how safe is Sochi?
It is unclear whether a military evacuation would entail U.S. forces entering Russian territory, but Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has publicly hinted that there is a plan of some sort.
“We’ve had conversations with the Russian government on protection of our citizens,” Hagel said recently.
He also has said the United States has offered assistance to Russia, but there has been no request from the Russian government for help.
McCaul, speaking on CNN’s New Day, also said the notion that Moscow needs foreign help to deal with its own homegrown terrorist threat would likely rile many Russians.
“There’s a sense of nationalistic pride in Russia, just as we would have in the United States,” said McCaul. “And so, while they’ve been very productive, cooperating with us on some issues, when it comes to the military, it gets a little sensitive.”
But former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes, a CNN law enforcement analyst, believes the U.S. precautions make sense.
“You’d hope that the U.S. wouldn’t be sitting around waiting for a telegram from Russia going ‘hey, come and get your people.’ So to me, that’s a commonsense approach, and the military should have a very robust plan to come in and do that,” he said.
“If an attack occurs, you’re going to have chaos. You’re going to have a large problem to get ships and get helicopters, so merely getting your forces in to get your people out will be quite an event just by itself.”
Russian ambassador says he’s certain Olympics will be safe
Britain taking ‘extra measures’
Other nations are well-aware of the security risk attached to any such major event — but are more coy about their precautions.
Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the British Olympic Association, declined to go into detail about the security measures planned for Team GB in Sochi.
“We will take some extra measures for our delegates,” he told CNN. But, he stressed, “that is not new — we have done that for a number of Games. That’s been part of our planning from the beginning.”
Seibel said the primary responsibility for security always falls to the host country and the organizing committee.
It’s something of which Britain is very conscious, having hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. As it turned out, the London Olympics went off without incident, but the security measures taken included parking missile batteries on apartment block roofs and a huge warship on the River Thames.
The precautions in Sochi are even more extensive, those who’ve been there say.
“This security operation is the most impressive and well-fortified that we’ve ever seen in Olympic history,” McCaul said.
Even so, a Quinnipiac poll conducted in the United States last week found that half those surveyed believe a terrorist attack at the Winter Olympics is very or somewhat likely.
Allaying fears
But American authorities have sought to allay concerns.
“What I can tell you is there has been an uptick in some of the reporting, but that is not unusual. It’s of concern, but not unusual for an event like this,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“The State Department has handled and is handling the issue of travel advisories for U.S. citizens, and we are offering the Russians any assistance that they might require or request in a situation like this.”
It’s not clear exactly how many people will travel to Sochi for the Games.
Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said in a statement: “The safety and security of Team USA is our top priority.
“As is always the case, we are working with the U.S. Department of State, the local organizers and the relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe.”
Former champion Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps said that the security issues are likely the last thing on the athletes’ minds right now.
“As an athlete, we don’t notice anything,” he said. “You know, we’re there to represent our country and we are there to compete at the highest level.”
Being in the Olympic Village with athletes from all over the world is incredible, he said, adding “there’s nothing like it.”
CNN’s Barbara Starr and Laura Bernardini contributed to this report.