A Brief Note On North American Aerospace Defense Command Essay

Throughout the history of Air Defense Artillery (ADA), innovative steps were made for the technological advance in weaponry to defend our skies and ground forces. The diverse history and continuous research and development of air defense systems played a vital role in the safety of ground troops and foreign civilians during the Persian Gulf crisis. Though not always in the forefront of battle, ADA had its own vital roles that it played from the time of its birth, and it was no different during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield when necessity helped to bring about the evolution of the PAC-II Patriot missile.

Many people believe that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were an inside job for many reasons, some being that phone calls from the planes were faked, and air defense was told to “stand down” and three buildings imploded as the result of two buildings being struck by airplanes. It’s believed that the cell phone calls were faked because it’s not possible to have very good signal on a plane and the passengers seemed very calm and quiet while talking on the phone to their loved ones. Michael Woodward states, “During the entire conversation, Sweeney's voice "remained calm and even. After reporting that her plane was flying very low, Woodward recalled, she "took a very slow, deep breath and then just said, 'Oh, my God!' Very slowly, very calmly, very quietly. It wasn't in panic” (Shoestring 9/11). Amy Sweeney was a flight attendant who had been talking to her manager Michael Woodward during the time of the terrorist attack. He describes how her voice was very calm and how she didn’t seem scared about what was going on around her at all. It is also believed that air defense was told to “stand down”. According to NORAD, “It is standard operating procedure to scramble jet fighters whenever a jetliner goes off course or radio contact with it is lost” (NORAD Stand-Down). From this perspective, it is important that help is sent out if connection with the

Our nation has been in conflict with the Middle East for over two and a half decades. Air Defense Artillery has made a huge impact in Middle East conflicts. The threats that make Air Defense Artillery a necessity for these conflicts include a number of aircraft, such as planes, jets and helicopters as well as launched munitions like scud missiles and mortars. Air Defense Artillery is an ever evolving force and has been there for protection of American forces against these threats. Air Defense Artillery is a group of weapons that divide the airspace into two different sectors. Short Range Air Defense, also known as SHORAD, defends against low altitude, short range aircraft and munitions. High to Medium Altitude Air Defense, also known

Beginning in 2001 Intelligence about the impending nature of an attack was increasing, not only from US Intelligence sources but also from 11 other countries such as Britain, Israel, India, Egypt, Morocco and even a top Taliban commander from Afghanistan (Thompson.) Beginning in August warnings become coming in from everywhere, foreign governments, CIA and FBI sources and so on however, next to none of this information was shared between the many intelligence agencies. In April, NORAD launched a training scenario in which the pentagon was to be incapacitated by a hijacked airliner however the Joint Chiefs of Staff disregarded the scenario as “too unrealistic” (September 11 attacks advance-knowledge debate.) On august 19th the Israeli’s gave US intelligence personnel credible information including, the list of 19 suspected terrorist’s names and the fact that a large aircraft would be the primary weapon involved. The names were not shared by the CIA with other intelligence agencies (Robinson.)

a) Economies of scale—the top three carriers (Federal Express, UPS, and Airborne Express) serve slightly more than 85% of the domestic express mail market. All three carriers deliver a high volume of packages, and thus, are able to spread fixed costs over more units. Also, each carrier has integrated technological systems that improved operational efficiency. In addition, intensive training programs of employees increase service and delivery efficiency.

U.S. foreign policy changed after the Cold War after the U.S. was unsure of what to do with their increased national defense. Many critics questioned the need for heavy defense spending and the large number of U.S. bases. For most of the twentieth century, the Cold War defined U.S. foreign policy as it centered around the idea of containment. After the Soviet Union fell, Americans shifted their focus from containing communism to solving several ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts, more specifically toward peacekeeping, globalization, and humanitarian ideology. One such result of this foreign policy was direct action in the Gulf War in 1990; the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm deployed during the gulf war was viewed widely as a success and helped to reinforce Bush’s ideals about a new world

Why were the passenger planes was not intercepted early before the attack? Jim Meigs, a debunker, stated that NORAD is not geared to protect us from toward domestic aircrafts, but does protect us from foreign aircrafts. The responsibility for tracking internal hijacks doesn't start with the military, but the FAA had responsibility to say there's a hijack. During the hijack the planes transponders were turned off. Air Traffic controllers lose the information on the aliu dude, but they can still track the plane as a primary signal. Webster Tarpley noted in his book 9/11, Synthetic Terror, states that staff exercises or command exercises are perfect for a rogue network which is forced to conduct its operations using the same communications and computer systems used by other officers who are not necessarily party to the illegal operation. Evening of september 10th, the security level for the NORAD computer system called infocon had been drop to normal, witch makes it easier for anyone to penetrate or compromise the computer networks of the air defense system on September 11th. Military exercises had been scheduled on that day of the attack. Some exercises consisted of false hijacks of commercial airplanes. The unusual number of exercises had two big problems, first they moved a large number of fighters tour to Canada and alaska. Finally, it created a major confusion in the system as soon the real hijackings were reported. General Richard Myers, denied

On September 11, 2001, four commercial aircraft were hijacked by terrorists who led an attack on America by crashing the planes into buildings. This attack created destruction, trauma, death, and fear. There had not been an act of war of this magnitude since the bombings of Pearl Harbor, and it shook the foundation of American exceptionalism. Americans exceptionalism is sometimes taken too far and it can create the idea that the United States is invincible. Therefore, when something of this scale takes place, a backlash is formed and the question of, ‘how did this happen’ is brought up. This new fear of airplanes becoming missiles brought the citizens of our county to bring a call to action to our government.

September 11, 2001 forever impacted America and gave a new challenge to our government that went far beyond any challenges that a natural disaster had presented in decades. The terrorist attacks were definitely a wake up call to being more prepared for natural disasters and reevaluating our intelligence agency jobs and communication levels. In chapter 2, one of the key points that Kettl discuss is connecting the dots. We can see that in the midst of 9/11, America focused on the nation’s intelligence services for answers. As the American people we wanted to know, who were the hijackers, where was security and most importantly, and who do we hold accountable? Furthermore, that the intelligence agencies failed to piece together information that already had about terrorism speculations. In chapter 1, Kettl talks about the warnings and signs that the government has before catastrophes (such as September 11, Hurricane

On September 11, 2001 four passenger commercial jet airliners were hijacked and as a result approximately 3,000 human lives were lost. When asked about 9/11, many can recall exactly what they were doing when they heard the news that a plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings and many Americans can tell you how it all unfolded and the reason behind such a travesty. The “official story” provided by officials, and restated by Sofia Shafquat, producer of “9/11 Mysteries: Demolitions” say that “four passenger planes were hijacked and taken radically off course, within an hour, two of the planes had flown into the enormous steel towers of the World Trade Center, creating fires and eventually toppling them” (Shafquat).

America has more than once been at war, from the Revolutionary period to Vietnam. As a

At 8:46:30am, the F-15s have orders to fly, and take of at 8:54 for New York, unaware that it’s already too late, as Flight 11 hits the North Tower of the World Trade Centre 10 seconds before they scramble. Even when flight 11 does hit the tower, NORAD & NEADS still do not know that it was flight 11. If they were to try and find it, even if it was in the air, it would be a challenge because military radar was not set up to look for commercial aeroplanes, cause at the time they weren’t seen as a threat.

The intelligence community knew that Osama bin Laden had threatened to “cut off the head of the serpent” (the US) and cause mass casualties; it also knew that Bin Laden was planning to do something with aircrafts. An FBI field office knew that several pilots were in training, but didn’t seem to piece it all together (Simonsen & Spindlove, 2013, Pg. 69) However, the past “Dots” lead to a buildup by internationalized terror fanatics from the Islamic world, with serious planning for perpetrating attacks against the U.S. The U.S. had no idea that the attackers were actually being flight trained in Florida and the U.S. were

As recent U.S. military involvement in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq has required the largest commitment of American troops since the mid-1970s, and the military has

On top of that everybody wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. The FAA knew when the first plane was hijacked, but never thought of warning others airlines about this. In the commission report it says: “One senior FAA air traffic control manager said that it was simply not the FAA’s place to order the airlines what to tell their pilots.” How could the airlines tell their pilots what to do, when they weren’t properly informed of the situation? This GIANT communication flaw is why hell broke loose on September 11.