PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – Members of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and their Russian Federation Air Force counterparts will meet in Ottawa this week to finalize this year’s live-fly VIGILANT EAGLE 2013 exercise.
This year’s Vigilant Eagle exercise will take place August 27-28 in Anchorage, Alaska and Anadyr, Russia and involves Russian, Canadian and U.S. military personnel and aircraft operating from command centers in Russia and the United States.
Working in partnership with the civilian Federal Aviation Agency 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.
All players will focus on coordinating their response to the incident. The basic scenario involves a simulated foreign flagged carrier on an international flight seized by terrorists. In the exercise, the aircraft does not respond to communications but it does not deviate from the approved flight plan either,
“The Final Planning Conference in the beautiful capital of Canada, Ottawa, is a great opportunity to confirm the final preparations for VIGILANT EAGLE 13 that will take place at the end of August. NORAD is now more than ready to conduct this exercise with the Russian Federation,” said Joe Bonnet, Director of Joint Training and Exercises for NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. “As I stated before, from a participant’s perspective, whether Canadian, American or Russian, it is more than a military exercise; it is creating lasting bonds and partnerships which are extremely valuable for the security of our nations.”
The last Vigilant Eagle exercise took place in Colorado Springs in August 2012 and was a computer-assisted exercise. It 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 three 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.
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