NORAD Monitors U.S. Skies to Protect the Homeland

(EXCERPT) By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2003 - On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the
staff at the North American Aerospace Defense Command was poised to
identify a missile test or space launch anywhere in the world, or to
tell exactly how many items of "space junk" were circling the globe.

What they didn't know was that four commercial airplanes hijacked
within U.S. borders were launching an orchestrated terrorist attack on
the United States.

That's because, at the time, the eyes and ears of NORAD were focused
on aerospace threats launched far from the shores of the United States
and Canada. The concept of an attack from within U.S. borders seemed
almost inconceivable to a command created in the 1950s to address Cold
War threats.

Today, NORAD's operations division chief says the command is
dramatically changed, with a larger scope and a major role in the war
on terror.

Air Force Lt. Col. Lennie Coleman said NORAD's ground-based radar,
airborne radar, aircraft, satellites and intelligence capabilities now
focus within the United States and Canada as well as offshore to
identify suspicious aircraft or other aerospace threats.

"We've expanded from our Cold War structure to be able to meet the
terrorist threat that's out there," he said.

From its air warning center, deep within Cheyenne Mountain near
Colorado Springs, Colo., NORAD now conducts around- the-clock
monitoring in support of Operation Noble Eagle — the mission to
protect the homeland.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Coleman said, NORAD has flown more than 32,000
sorties in support of Operation Noble Eagle. More than 1,500 of these
sorties, flown by U.S. F-15 and F- 16 fighters and Canadian CF-18s
from sites throughout the United States and Canada, involved what
Coleman calls "targets of interest."

"In every single one of these cases, the pilots taking off on the
ground or being diverted have no idea if they are going up to another
Sept. 11," Coleman said. "Every mission is taken very seriously."

Fortunately, most "targets of interest" have turned out to be pilots
who had mistakenly strayed into restricted air space or whose
communication or navigation equipment had failed, he said.

But in several instances, they proved to be real-life threats. One was
the airliner that carried Richard C. Reid, the "shoe bomber" who tried
to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight just four months after the 9-11
terrorist attacks. U.S. fighters shadowed the flight until the pilots
made an emergency landing in Boston.

Two other "targets of interest" involved hijacked Cuban airliners.
Again, U.S. fighter jets intervened in both hijackings, shadowing the
aircraft until they landed in the Florida keys.

Coleman emphasized that NORAD does not conduct its expanded mission in
a void. The command works hand-in-hand with a wide range of government
agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret
Service and the Transportation Security Agency.

"We work closely with them to complement the security measures that
they have put in place since 9-11," Coleman said. "And we've helped
make sure that our defensive measures will be there if those security
measures fail."

Nowhere is NORAD's increased intergovernmental coordination more
evident than with the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Before Sept. 11, the FAA had to physically pick up the phone and call
us if there was a hijacking," said Coleman. "Today, they don't have to
do that. We have constant, real- time communications with the FAA. So
when they have concern about an airplane — even before they determine
that it is a problem — we already know about it. That's a vast
improvement."

But Coleman said NORAD is constantly "exercising the system and
looking for ways to do it smarter, do it better" and to improve
interagency coordination.

Information sharing is key, he said, to ensuring that each agency
understands its role in a crisis and is prepared to carry it out.

Coleman said regular exercises help reinforce that the system is
working, and serve as a deterrent to would-be terrorists.

"Time and space are our friends," he said. "If we can gain one extra
day, one extra hour, one extra phone call, one extra planning effort
that the bad guys have to take, that gives those intelligence, law
enforcement and security elements in the field that one chance to
catch them before we, the last line of defense, (have) to act."

Coleman said these initiatives are making the United States and Canada
far safer than before Sept. 11.

"We've looked at the terrorist threat very seriously, and we've
expanded our communication, our command-and-control infrastructure and
our interagency coordination to be able to hopefully avoid ever having
another 9-11," he said.

"We're much better postured to meet the threat, no matter where it
comes from — not only externally, but internally as well. And that's a
guarantee."

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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com