Photo: NORAD
The U.S. military plans to conduct a one-day flight training exercise over Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
The training exercise, named Falcon Virgo 10-01, is comprised of a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the Civil Air Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard.
Falcon Virgo is designed to hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations. Civil Air Patrol aircraft, Air Force F-16s and Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopters will participate in the exercise. Residents in the D.C. area can expect flights to occur during the late night and early morning hours beginning Wednesday at midnight and continuing through the scheduled exercise hours.
In the event of inclement weather, the exercise will push to the next day, until all training requirements are met.
These exercises are carefully planned and 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 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, military 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.
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