Military bases across the United States were ordered to raise the force protection level from Alpha to Bravo late Thursday night in response to concerns that ISIS is targeting our nation’s military.

Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of the Colorado-based U.S. Northern Command, raised military installations’ force protection level to “Bravo” after months of maintaining it at “Alpha,” the lowest level of security, a defense official said Friday.

“While our [force protection level] change is not tied to a specific, credible threat, recent events have led us to recognize the need to take prudent steps to ensure our [force protection] measures can be increased quickly and unpredictably at the macro level, just as they routinely vary at the micro level on individual installations,” the defense official said.

What is FPCON?  The graphic below highlights the various levels of Force Protection threats the military works with:

FPCON or Force Protection Condition is the Department of Defense’s terrorist threat system. It outlines the details of what protection measures should be implemented by security agencies in response the terror threat levels against any or all of our military installations.

#FPCONBravo means stricter ID checks, random security drills, heightened alert. "predictable terrorist threat" Extra precaution. More guards

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) May 8, 2015

ISIS activity prompts threat level increase at U.S. Military bases– "Protection Level Bravo" highest level since 9/11 10th anniversary

— Michael Burns (@ItsBurnsy25) May 8, 2015

Raising the FPCON level from Alpha to Bravo indicates that the FBI along with those at the DoD believe the threat posed by ISIS in this country is no longer low but has upgraded to a mid-level threat. This action will affect all installations including those of the National Guard, recruiting, and ROTC detachments.

Is this tied to Sunday’s shooting at the Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, TX? Very possibly. Keep in mind that one of the shooters, Elton Simpson, an Islam convert, has quite a history of extremist ties to ISIS groups in Syria and Iraq.  The Director of the FBI believes there is a tie-in.

Yesterday he gave a detailed assessment of the threat posed by ISIS here at home:

“I know there are other Elton Simpsons out there,” FBI director James Comey told reporters. “We have a very hard task” in trying to stop individuals who might be influenced by ISIS and its propaganda via social media.

We already know that ISIS is in the U.S.  There are several who’ve been arrested or detained by the FBI in recent months.

The FBI and the DoD are treating this very seriously. In fact, Director Comey believes that ISIS ability to successfully leverage social media as a recruiting platform has led to hundreds, maybe thousands of people in the U.S. being aggressively recruited or even tasked with assaulting U.S. targets. Will these recruits be easy to find? No, its kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Does that mean we should be freaking out on a massive scale? No. FPCON Bravo means our U.S. military is stepping up their vigilance and security here at home, and we should do the same.