General Explains NORTHCOM’s Collaborative Missions

Filed under DoD News, Pentagon Channel by on January 29, 2010 at 12:44 pm {no comments}



By Ian Graham

To say U.S. Air Force General Victor E. Renuart, Jr.,commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command, has a pretty important job would be, well, a colossal understatement.

His responsibilities as head of NORTHCOM and NORAD (you may more familiar with them as abbreviations) include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles.
  • Domestic disaster relief operations that occur during fires, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Support also includes counter-drug operations and managing the consequences of a terrorist event employing a weapon of mass destruction.
  • Ensuring air sovereignty and air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States.
  • Awareness and understanding of the activities conducted in U.S. and Canadian maritime approaches, maritime areas and inland waterways.
  • Providing civil authorities with a potent military response capability to counter domestic airspace threats.
  • Planning, organizing and executing homeland defense and civil support missions.
  • Tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

The area he watches? From NORTHCOM’s Web site: U.S. Northern Command’s area of responsibility includes “air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, and portions of the Caribbean region to include The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

And get this: he’s not just in charge of military operations.

(more…)

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