Paul McHale, the Pentagon point man for Homeland Defense, said Tuesday in Washington that Noble Eagle combat air patrols are still necessary even in the now unlikely event that terrorists could take control of a civilian aircraft and turn it into a weapon as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. The stateside CAPs, predominantly flown by the Air National Guard, will continue, noted McHale, “with varying degrees of intensity.”
A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training…