NORAD, Russian Federation Air Force prepare for joint exercise

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – Members of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and their Russian Federation Air Force counterparts met here, April 24-27 to prepare for this year’s live-fly VIGILANT EAGLE 2013 exercise.

The exercise is scheduled to take place in August in Anchorage, Alaska and Anadyr, Russia.

Working in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration and its Russian counterpart, this year’s exercise will focus on national procedures for monitoring the situation and the cooperative hand-off of a hijacked aircraft from one nation to the other while exchanging air tracking information. Both nations will focus on coordinating their response to the incident. The basic scenario involves a foreign flagged carrier on an international flight that is hijacked.

“The VIGILANT EAGLE exercise series has been an extraordinary and historic opportunity for NORAD and the Russian Federation to coordinate on the response to a mutually acknowledged hijacking threat,” said Joe Bonnet, Director of Joint Training and Exercises for NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. “From a participant’s perspective, it is more than a military exercise; it is creating lasting bonds and partnerships extremely valuable for the security of our nations.”

The final planning conference will take place this June in Ottawa. The last VE exercise took place in Colorado Springs in August and was a computer-assisted exercise and that exercise allowed the teams to prepare for this year’s live-fly exercise. This year’s exercise will continue building and strengthening the cooperation and partnership established between the two countries.

The U.S.-Russian Federation Armed Forces Military Cooperation Work Plan is the basis that allows the Russian Federation and NORAD personnel to conduct VE conferences and execution.