Big plane, big military exercise
U.S. and Canada carry out live-fly NORAD training to detect and defeat threats in far North
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, October 21, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The giant U.S. military aircraft parked at the Yellowknife Airport last weekend was taking part in Vigilant Shield 17, an annual exercise conducted by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The C-5 Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the U.S. military, sits parked at the Yellowknife Airport last weekend. Originally from the Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., the Galaxy was used to transport cargo for a NORAD live-fly exercise called the Vigilant Shield 17. The exercise trains military personnel to detect and defeat threats in the far North and high arctic regions. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
As a live-fly exercise, Vigilant Shield 17 trains military personnel to detect and defeat threats in the far North and high arctic regions, according to Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Tristan McKee.
The aircraft called the C-5 Galaxy is the largest in the U.S. military, weighing up to a 450,000 kilograms. It can carry 130,000 tons of cargo, which often includes other aircrafts, and was used to transport the equipment and personnel for the exercise to Yellowknife.
The C-5 Galaxy flew up last weekend from the Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif.
As part of the exercise that started on Monday and finishes today, military-grade aircraft, including Canadian F-18 fighter jets, U.S. F-15 aircraft and surveillance, re-fuelling and rescue crafts, flew through Yellowknife airspace on their path to training sessions farther north.
The exercise resulted in increased military presence and noise in this city, said McKee.
"It's practicing and demonstrating our ability to detect and identify possible threats in these remote regions of the globe," he told Yellowknifer. "If someone is encroaching on our airspace, what we're doing is going out and seeing what they're doing and escorting them from there."
NORAD is a bi-national military organization and partnership between Canada and the United States to provide maritime warning, aerospace warning and aerospace control for all of North America.
NORAD works to detect, deter and defend against all threats to Canadian and U.S. air sovereignty through a network of alert fighters, tankers, airborne early warning aircraft and ground-based air defense assets used by inter-agency and defense surveillance radars.
NORAD also provides surveillance and operational control of Canadian and U.S. airspace.
