TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region will participate in Exercise Amalgam Arrow Friday, July 24, 2009. The short duration exercise will take place from 1 - 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time at a Military Operating Area west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The exercise is designed to hone NORAD and CONR’s intercept and identification operations. These exercises are carefully planned and closely controlled to ensure NORAD's rapid response capability.
An Air Force C-21 jet will take on the role as a track of interest.
CONR, along with its Eastern and Western Air Defense Sectors, provides airspace surveillance and control and directs all air sovereignty activities over the continental United States.
The Eastern Air Defense Sector based in Rome, N.Y., will scramble Air Force F-16s fighters from the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw AFB, S.C., and direct them to intercept the C-21.
NORAD and CONR have conducted exercise flights of this nature throughout the U.S. and Canada since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the command's response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, NORAD has responded to more than 2,100 possible air threats in the United States and has flown more than 52,000 sorties with the support of Airborne Warning and Control System and air-to-air-refueling aircraft.