The United States is to review an air defence system established after the September 11, 2001 attacks to determine whether the costly programme is still necessary, the New York Times reported Friday. The review is expected to include a complete reassessment of the threat of a terror attack by air and will consider the cumulative effects of various security measures taken since the 2001 attacks.
The review was ordered by Major General Pierre Forgues, the Canadian who currently heads the North American Aerospace Defence Command, commonly known as Norad. "The fighter force is extremely expensive, so you always have to ask yourself the question 'How much is enough?'" Forgues told the Times. The programme currently involves keeping dozens of military aircraft and hundreds of air crew on alert to respond to any threats, though air patrols of US cities ended in 2007.
The review of the program, expected to be complete by next spring, will look at the likelihood of terrorists hijacking a plane or piloting their own aircraft into US or Canadian airspace. It will try to assess whether the air defence program is necessary in light of various security measures, including airport screening, passenger tracking and secured airliner cockpits, that were implemented after the 9/11 attacks.
"The ability of terrorists to do what they did on 9/11 has been greatly curtailed," Forgues told the Times. However, he warned that the outcome of the review was not predetermined and the program could be maintained at current levels or even scaled up if deemed necessary. Norad statistics show that there were 1,000 incidents of suspicious air activity last year, with 400 requiring a Norad response and 200 prompting jet fighters to be scrambled, the Times said.
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