North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) F-15 warplanes and Civilian Air Patrol aircraft conducted an air defense exercise over southwestern Louisiana in January 2026 as part of the long-running Operation Noble Eagle, designed to reinforce air sovereignty and defense missions in North America. The January 14 exercise, which lasted about one hour between Lafayette and Lake Charles, is part of a series of air defense training operations for a variety of scenarios, including airspace restriction violations, hijackings, and responding to unknown aircraft to test responses, systems and equipment, according to a NORAD news release.
NORAD air exercises, including Noble Eagle, are carefully planned and controlled, with planes operating at about 3 kilometers above ground, the release stated. The defense of Canada and the United States is NORAD’s top priority, and Operation Noble Eagle forms a key function of the world’s only bilateral defense command. “For more than 65 years, NORAD aircraft have identified and intercepted potential air threats to North America in the execution of the command’s aerospace warning and aerospace control missions,” the release stated.
Noble Eagle was created in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and evolved into a series of exercises across North America involving more than two dozen air bases. The exercise reflects NORAD’s commitment to prepare for immediate threats over U.S and Canadian airspace in addition to its mission to detect and track potential threats from abroad. Noble Eagle is “vital for aerospace warning, control, and defense across North America, ensuring the safety and security of U.S. and Canadian airspace around the clock,” a 2024 NORAD news release stated.
In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in April 2025, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of the U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, praised Noble Eagle for having made North American airspace safer for decades, adapting to evolving challenges including Chinese Communist Party and Russian bombers, advanced cruise missiles and terrorist threats to civilian aviation. “The threats to North American airspace have steadily grown more complex and now include a spectrum of competitor capabilities that range from modernized long-range bombers and hypersonic cruise missiles down to small unmanned systems that can fit into a backpack,” Guillot testified. “While two decades of whole-of-government response have reduced the threat of terrorist threats to civil aircraft, NORAD maintains the ability to deter and defeat nation-state threats from every avenue of approach to North America while safeguarding national leaders from aerial threats, both in the National Capital Region and around the country.”