NORAD alert F-15Cs conducted air intercept exercises against light aircraft flown by the Civil Air Patrol over New Hampshire earlier this week, Massachusetts’ WLPP-22 News reported. The Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing conducted the Fertile Keynote exercise to maintain proficiency for its air defense commitment as part of Operation Noble Eagle. NORAD’s Eastern Air Defense Sector, which has alert responsibility for the eastern half of the continental United States, also conducted a second intercept exercise near Savannah, Ga., NORAD announced. A third exercise over the National Capital Region early Wednesday morning was scrubbed, NORAD spokeswoman Joann Missey told Air Force Magazine, Nov. 18. Small-scale Fertile Keynote exercises comple?ment NORAD’s larger scale exercises, such as the Falcon Virgo, which additionally tests the Washington D.C. region’s command and control, interagency cooperation, and early warning systems, and was rescheduled for later in the week. The 104th FW from Barnes ANGB, Mass., also conducted a Fertile Keynote back in October.
NASA Boss: Race to Moon Has National Security Stakes
Sept. 15, 2026
NASA is pushing hard to get astronauts back to the moon by 2028—and the urgency is driven in no small part by the national security implications of doing so before China does, Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sept. 15.
