Monthly Exercise To Begin At Midnight Friday

 ANN Realtime Update 2140 EDT 12.9.09 The North American Aerospace Defense Command and its geographical component, the Continental United States NORAD Region (CONR) exercise scheduled to begin later tonight in the Washington D.C. area will be postponed 24 hours due to weather. 

The one-day exercise, Falcon Virgo 10-03, will begin late Thursday evening and continue into the early morning hours Friday in the National Capital Region.

Original Story: North American Aerospace Defense Command will conduct exercise flights December 10th around the National Capital Region (Washington, D.C.).  The flights will take place beginning around midnight and continue into the early morning hours.  In the event of inclement weather, the exercise will take place the following day.  People can expect to hear and see NORAD fighter aircraft, Civil Air Patrol aircraft, and Coast Guard helicopters as they participate in these exercises.
 
The exercise has been carefully planned and will be closely controlled to ensure NORAD's rapid response capability.  NORAD has 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 that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.

The training flights are held in coordination with the FAA, the National Capital Region Command Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center, the Continental U.S. NORAD Region, Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and CONR’s Eastern Air Defense Sector.

The exercises are designed to hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations, as well as procedural tests of the NCR Visual Warning System. Since September 11, 2001, CONR fighters have responded to more than 2,300 possible air threats in the United States and have flown more than 54,000 sorties with the support of Airborne Warning and Control System and air-to-air-refueling aircraft.

FMI: www.norad.mil