COLORADO SPRINGS - The commander of military forces protecting North America has ordered a review of the costly air defenses intended to prevent another Sept. 11-style terrorism attack, an assessment aimed at determining whether the commitment of jet fighters, other aircraft, and crews remains justified.
Senior officers involved in the effort say the assessment is to gauge the likelihood that terrorists may succeed in hijacking an airliner or flying their own smaller craft into the United States or Canada. The study is focused on circumstances in which the attack would be aimed not at a public building or landmark but instead at a power plant or a critical link in the nation’s financial network, like a major electrical grid or a computer network hub.
The review, to be completed next spring, is expected to be the military’s most thorough reassessment of the threat of a terrorism attack by air since Al Qaeda strikes on Sept. 11, 2001, transformed a Defense Department focused on fighting other militaries and led to the Bush administration’s war on terror.
The assessment is partly a reflection of how a military straining to fight two wars is questioning whether it makes sense to keep in place the costly system of protections established after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Though combat patrols above American cities were discontinued in 2007, the military keeps dozens of warplanes and hundreds of air crew members on alert to respond to potential threats.
“The fighter force is extremely expensive, so you always have to ask yourself the question, ‘How much is enough?’ ’’ said Major General Pierre J. Forgues of Canada, director of operations for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which carries out the air defense mission within the United States military’s Northern Command.
Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, will try to determine in its review whether the United States is safer today. Military strategists and operations officers have been asked to address whether the security measures put in place since 2001 have diminished the threat of terrorist attack by aircraft to such an extent that a smaller commitment of combat jets and personnel is now warranted.
General Victor E. Renuart Jr., the head of Northern Command, ordered the review in response to criticism this year by the Government Accountability Office that the command had failed to conduct “routine risk assessments.’’
Statistics provided by NORAD show that in 2008, there were more than 1,000 instances of suspicious air activity. Of those, about 400 required a response from NORAD.
