Fighters often called to guard Air Force One

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 9, 2005 | by PAM ZUBECK THE GAZETTE

When President Bush travels aboard Air Force One, fighter jets are often called upon to shoo away aircraft that accidentally get in the way, the deputy commander of the nation's homeland defense agency said Tuesday.

"Just about every time the president moves, somebody flies into his airspace and our forces deal with it," said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Inge, second in command at U.S. Northern Command and U.S. vice commander for the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, at Peterson Air Force Base.

"So far we haven't had an accident," he said, "and so far we haven't had an event that did more than push the unknowing intruder out of the way."

Inge was among the speakers at Defending America/SpaceComm 2005, a symposium for armed forces intelligence and information technology officials at The Broadmoor International Center.

Inge provided a peek into how NORAD monitors threats and how Northern Command defends against attack and aids civil authorities in responding to natural disasters.

"On any given day, 36 fighters (are) on alert," he said, giving a figure officials often shy from revealing.

"On any given day, you put those fighters in the air, virtually every day.

"On any given day, there are four quick reaction infantry forces, and on any given day we exercise them.... On any given day, there's powerful work between our headquarters and our National Guard."

The point, he said, is that Northern Command, created in October 2002 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, doesn't have its own fighting forces, but it can't sleep.

So it calls upon dozens of agencies to try to assure the United States is effectively guarded.

Those include the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pentagon and Coast Guard.

"In the business of defending the homeland, there's nothing more important than building partnerships," he said.

"Every day, I found a headquarters that was invaluable, that was able to assess the situation and determine the proper command and control.

"I found a command that every day is tracking something, whether it's a vessel of interest loaded with chemicals coming to the port of Houston, whether it's one of those airplanes coming into the president's airspace, whether it's a railroad train with chemicals that goes off the track in North Carolina."

The conference continues through Thursday.

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