Denmark May Use Stealth F-35s Over Greenland THE WATCH STAFF Danish military officials say the U.S.-made F-35 fighter jet is poised to play a key role in Denmark’s air defense and could be used in Greenland as the abundant natural resources of the Arctic lure great power competitors to the region. Maj. Gen. Anders Rex, commander of Air Command Denmark for the Royal Danish Air Force, told Defense News in August 2020 that some of the 27 F-35s that Denmark purchased from the United States will be outfitted with a drag chute that will enable them to land on icy runways. “Coupled…
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NORAD identifies threats, enforces air restrictions THE WATCH STAFF They patrol the skies over the biggest events — Super Bowls, World Series games and rocket launches. More frequently, they intercept pilots who violate flight restrictions by flying over protected areas such as the nation’s capital or the presidential retreat. Aviators from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) defend the homeland every day by identifying threats and interacting with civilian and military pilots. The events that often make headlines, however, are NORAD’s military-to-military encounters, such as when NORAD pilots intercept long-range Russian bombers. NORAD is charged with the critical missions…
Military, intelligence collaboration protects homelands worldwide THE WATCH STAFF Military and intelligence-sharing cooperation agreements play prominent roles in the history of homeland defense. Friendly governments collaborated to uncover a Soviet spy ring stealing nuclear secrets. A regional defense pact led to the capture of terrorist kidnappers in Southeast Asia. More recently, Indian insurgent groups operating inside Bangladesh were disbanded, thanks to military coordination between neighboring border forces. In a digital world where threats can originate from any point on the globe, like-minded countries are coming to an important conclusion: Homeland defense starts with the efforts of friendly nations far from…
NORAD Deputy Director of Operations: Analytics, all-domain awareness are pillars of homeland strategy The Watch spoke with Brig. Gen. Pete M. Fesler, deputy director of operations for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), to discuss a wide range of homeland defense issues. Gen. Fesler oversees the execution of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. Gen. Fesler has served in a variety of operational, educational and staff assignments, including multiple tours in both the F-15C and F-22A fighter jets as a command pilot. He participated in multiple deployments, including more than 50 combat missions over Iraq.…
A vigorous missile defense strategy is essential to security at home and abroad THE WATCH Staff In congressional testimony in 2019, top United States military officials painted a vivid picture of the evolving threats posed by hostile countries with missile stockpiles. Now more than ever, the military leaders said, the U.S. and its allies must maintain a technological advantage by upgrading the reliability and lethality of missile defense systems. “The threats facing our nation are not hypothetical,” Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), told the…
THE WATCH Staff As the COVID-19 pandemic infected hundreds of thousands worldwide in late 2019 and early 2020, the U.S. military aggressively responded by assisting civil health authorities in tasks that ranged from delivering food to building temporary hospitals and deploying medical ships. While agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took the lead in the pandemic response, the military support effort involved thousands of personnel and covered all states, territories and Washington, D.C. U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) leads the 14 Department of…
THE WATCH Staff COVID-19 is from the coronavirus family, which includes viruses that can cause the common cold and serious illnesses such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). 2019 – COVID-19 is a new coronavirus that is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China. By earlly May 2020, COVID-19 had spread to 212 countries and territories, infected more than 4 million people and resulted in more than 270,000 deaths. POSSIBLE ORIGIN: Scientists worldwide now say the virus likely originated in bats. Although researchers aren’t sure yet, they believe COVID-19 passed from bats through…
Working together to defend the planet from orbiting debris THE WATCH Staff China tested its anti-satellite capabilities in 2007 by purposely destroying a nonfunctional weather satellite with a surface-launched, medium-range missile. The test created more than 3,300 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters in diameter. A collision with any one of these pieces would prove catastrophic to the average satellite circling Earth or even the International Space Station (ISS), according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The missile test also produced more than 200,000 debris particles as small as 1 centimeter, large enough to disable a spacecraft or…
Brian D. Laslie, Ph.D. Photos by NORAD The idea of a hardened command center is older than the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) itself. It was January 15, 1956, when Gen. Earle E. Partridge, commander in chief of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), directed his staff to begin preliminary planning for a Combat Operations Center to be located — somewhere — underground. Partridge believed his above-ground center on Ent Air Force Base, Colorado, was too small to manage the growing air defense system and was vulnerable to sabotage or attack by any number of possible, but mainly Soviet, threats.…